New York appeals judge refuses to postpone Trump’s sentencing for hush money convictions

A New York appeals court has rejected President-elect Donald Trump’s request to suspend his sentencing hearing later this week, a blow to the leader-in-waiting before his inauguration.

Associate Judge Ellen Gesmer issued a brief order denying the defense’s request to delay sentencing, which is scheduled for Friday.

“After reviewing the documents submitted and the lengthy pleading, the mover’s request for interim suspension is denied,” the judge wrote.

The defense wants Mr. Trump’s convictions for falsifying business records in Manhattan to evaporate, period, given the Supreme Court’s ruling on presidential immunity and Mr. Trump’s election victory in November.

“This doctrine of sitting president immunity mandates the immediate dismissal, not just suspension, of any pending criminal case against President Trump, regardless of the stage of the proceedings,” the attorney wrote. defense Todd Blanche at the State Appellate Division: First Judicial Department. “Once President Trump is re-elected, the jury verdict in the underlying criminal case should have been immediately overturned and the case dismissed. »

The appeals judge was not swayed, leaving Mr. Trump on track to face the ignominy of a sentencing hearing before his January 20 inauguration.

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SEE ALSO: Federal judge temporarily blocks release of Jack Smith’s report on Trump

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State Supreme Court Justice Juan Merchan said he would not impose prison time on the president-elect. But Mr Trump is furious that the case – and his criminal status – remains intact. Mr. Trump recently said that Judge Merchan should be disbarred.

At trial, prosecutors said Mr. Trump criminally concealed a cash payment to adult film star Stormy Daniels around the 2016 campaign in an attempt to violate election laws.

They said Mr. Trump paid Ms. Daniels through Michael Cohen and hid reimbursements from the lawyer in 2017 by misidentifying checks.

Mr. Trump’s lawyers said he was busy running the country and believed he was paying Mr. Cohen for legal services. So his team recorded the checks this way.

They also said the lawsuit was politically motivated and designed to thwart Mr. Trump’s presidential campaign.

A jury found Mr. Trump guilty of 34 counts of falsifying business records.

The president-elect’s liberal opponents hoped his legal troubles would sink him. Instead, he seemed to thrive in the face of adversity and won the GOP primary and general election against Vice President Kamala Harris.

Special counsel Jack Smith has moved to dismiss federal charges against Mr. Trump, and a Georgia racketeering case against Mr. Trump is in limbo due to a conflict of interest involving Fulton County Prosecutor Fani Willis.

Despite the setback in New York, Mr. Trump was beaming after a federal judge in Florida temporarily blocked the Justice Department from releasing Mr. Smith’s final report on federal investigations.

US District Court Judge Aileen Cannon said she was barring the release while the US 11th Circuit Court of Appeals considers an emergency request from Mr Trump’s co-defendants that the release would cause them a irreparable harm.

“It’s a big story,” Mr. Trump said at a news conference after learning of the judge’s decision. “It will just be a false report. This is excellent news.

Mr. Trump’s team has seen a draft of the special counsel’s report on investigations into the president-elect’s efforts to overturn the 2020 election and store classified documents at his Mar-a-Lago residence after he left his functions.

Judge Cannon’s order prevents the Justice Department from sharing the report with anyone outside the department.

Mr. Smith decided to dismiss his lawsuit against Mr. Trump, citing precedent that sitting presidents should not be criminally prosecuted. However, he wrote a final report which constituted the final account of his work.

Mr. Trump’s lawyers say releasing the final report would violate the Presidential Transition Act and the doctrine of presidential immunity.

They also said the release of the reports would be “nothing more than an anarchic political stunt, intended to politically damage President Trump and to justify the enormous sums of taxpayer money that Smith unconstitutionally spent on his case failed and rejected.

Mr. Trump appointed Judge Cannon during his first term. She issued rulings favorable to Mr. Trump and dismissed the Mar-a-Lago documents case on the grounds that Mr. Smith was illegally appointed, leading liberals to accuse the judge of seeking favors, or even an appointment to the Supreme Court.

Mr. Trump shifted the focus to Mr. Smith at a news conference Tuesday morning, hours after trying to block the release of Mr. Smith’s report.

“He’s a disturbed individual,” Mr. Trump said of Mr. Smith. “I guess he’s on his way back to The Hague. And we won those cases. They were the biggest. And the press made a big deal out of it. But we didn’t do anything wrong. We didn’t do anything wrong on anything.

• Mallory Wilson contributed to this story.