Trump calls for halt to corruption prosecution, conviction after asking federal court to intervene

NEW YORK — Lawyers for former President Donald Trump on Friday asked for a stay of proceedings in his New York criminal bribery case and an indefinite postponement of sentencing scheduled for next month as he fights for a federal court to intervene and potentially overturn his felony conviction.

In a letter to the judge presiding over the state court case, Trump’s lawyers asked him to postpone his decision, scheduled for September 16, on Trump’s request to overturn the verdict and dismiss the indictment following the US Supreme Court’s recent ruling on presidential immunity.

Trump’s lawyers also urged the trial judge, Juan M. Merchan, to indefinitely postpone Trump’s Sept. 18 sentencing while the U.S. District Court in Manhattan considers their request late Thursday to take the case to the state court where he was tried.

Trump’s lawyers said delaying the proceedings was the “only appropriate course” as they seek to have the federal court overturn a verdict they say violates the Republican presidential nominee’s constitutional rights and the Supreme Court’s ruling that grants former presidents broad protections from prosecution.

If the case goes to federal court, Trump’s lawyers said they would seek to have the verdict overturned and the case dismissed on immunity grounds. They had previously asked Merchan to delay Trump’s sentencing until after the November election. He had not ruled on that request as of Friday.

“There is no good reason to convict President Trump before November 5, 2024, if there is to be a conviction, or to advance post-trial proceedings on an unnecessarily accelerated timetable,” Trump’s lawyers Todd Blanche and Emil Bove wrote.

The letter, dated Thursday, was not added to Trump’s state court filing until Friday.

Merchan did not immediately respond. The Manhattan district attorney’s office, which prosecuted Trump’s case, declined to comment. The office opposed Trump’s previous attempt to move the case out of state court last year and fought his bid to have the case dismissed on immunity grounds.

In May, Trump was convicted on 34 counts of falsifying business records to conceal a $130,000 payment to porn star Stormy Daniels, whose affair allegations threatened to disrupt his 2016 presidential campaign. Trump has denied the allegations and said he did nothing wrong.

Falsifying business documents is punishable by up to four years in prison. Other penalties include probation or a fine.

The Supreme Court’s July 1 decision limits prosecutions of former presidents for official acts and limits the ability of prosecutors to use official acts as evidence that a president’s unofficial actions were illegal.

Trump’s lawyers have argued that prosecutors rushed to trial instead of waiting for the Supreme Court’s ruling on presidential immunity, and that prosecutors erred by showing jurors evidence that should not have been allowed under the ruling, such as former White House staffers describing how he responded to media coverage of the bribe deal and tweets he sent while president in 2018.

Trump’s lawyers had already invoked presidential immunity in an unsuccessful attempt last year to have the hush-money case transferred from state to federal court.