Prosecutors in New York are urging the judge presiding over Donald Trump’s hush money case not to allow his last-ditch effort to move the case to federal court to delay proceedings in the historic state criminal case.
Lawyers for the former president filed a motion in federal court last week seeking to move the state prosecution into federal court. A federal judge rejected a similar attempt last year, but Trump’s attorneys argued the U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling on presidential immunity in a separate Trump criminal case has made their position stronger and that a judge should halt the Sept. 18 sentencing while he considers the issue.
They also want the state judge presiding over the criminal case, Juan Merchan, to halt the proceedings while the federal judge considers the issue, and have contended they need more time to present their arguments before his sentencing.
In a letter last week to the judge that was made public Tuesday, the Manhattan district attorney’s office urged Merchan to deny the request.
“Federal law is clear that proceedings in this Court need not be stayed pending the district court’s resolution of defendant’s removal notice,” the DA’s letter said. It also added that “the concerns defendant expresses about timing are a function of his own strategic and dilatory litigation tactics: This second notice of removal comes nearly ten months after defendant voluntarily abandoned his appeal from his first, unsuccessful effort to remove this case; three months after he was found guilty by a jury on thirty-four felony counts; and nearly two months after defendant asked this Court to consider his CPL § 330.30 motion for a new trial.”
Trump’s lawyers have also used the Supreme Court’s immunity ruling to argue to Merchan that the guilty verdict should be overturned and the indictment dismissed because it contained evidence of Trump’s “official acts” as president, which they say is out of bounds in light of the high court’s decision.
The DA’s office opposes that argument and contends the impact of the “official acts” that were referred to in the case were negligible.
Merchan is expected to issue his ruling on the issue on Sept. 16 — two days before Trump’s sentencing. Trump’s attorneys have asked the judge to delay the proceedings until after the election to give them time to properly appeal if he rules against them.
Prosecutors said they would defer to the judge on pushing back the Sept. 18 date in order to give Trump “adequate time” to try an appeal, but also urged him to pronounce sentence “without unreasonable delay.” The judge has yet to rule on the delay request.
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