Lisa Rubin and Dareh Gregorian
·4 min read
Attorneys for former President Donald Trump are asking the New York judge who presided over the trial where he was convicted on felony charges of falsifying business records to postpone his sentencing until after the election.
"By adjourning the sentencing until after that election — which is of paramount importance to the entire Nation," the letter from Trump lawyers Todd Blanche and Emil Bove to Judge Juan Merchan reads, "the Court would reduce, even if not eliminate, issues regarding the integrity of any future proceedings."
Trump was convicted in May on 34 counts of falsifying business records related to a hush money payment to adult film star Stormy Daniels during the 2016 presidential election. He was originally scheduled to be sentenced on July 11, but Merchan postponed the sentencing date until Sept. 18 at Trump's request. The judge did so in order to allow his attorneys time to present arguments that a U.S. Supreme Court decision on presidential immunity in a different Trump case should result in his conviction being overturned.
Merchan was initially supposed to issue his ruling on that motion by Sept. 6, but pushed back the date until Sept. 16 after his lawyers also pressed for a third time for the judge to recuse himself from the case because of an alleged conflict. The judge denied that bid in a ruling earlier this week.
In his letter, Blanche contended that the period between Merchan's decision on immunity and the sentencing date is too short, and wouldn't give his client time to file a proper appeal if the judge rules against him. "A single business day is an unreasonably short period of time" for an appeal, Blanche wrote.
He also contended the Manhattan district attorney's office shouldn't be allowed to submit its sentencing recommendation while the immunity decision is pending because it would be "personally and politically prejudicial to President Trump and his family, and harmful to the institution of the Presidency."
"Finally, setting aside naked election-interference objectives, there is no valid countervailing reason for the Court to keep the current sentencing date on the calendar. There is no basis for continuing to rush," the letter said.
The DA's office declined to comment.
Blanche's letter also referred to Merchan's decision to deny the recusal motion, adding that "the requested adjournment would prospectively mitigate the asserted conflicts and appearances of impropriety, which are also the subject of an ongoing congressional inquiry."
Trump and his attorneys have complained that Judge Merchan is conflicted because the company where his daughter works did digital fundraising for Kamala Harris' presidential campaign during the 2020 election. The "ongoing congressional inquiry" referred to in the letter is a probe being conducted by House Judiciary Committee chair Jim Jordan, a close Trump ally.
Jordan sent Merchan's daughter a letter on Aug. 1 demanding all information about work her company, Authentic Campaigns, has done in the current election cycle on behalf of Harris, Biden and the Democratic National Committee, and any communications they had about Trump's criminal case.
The company's founder, Mike Nellis, responded to the letter Wednesday and said the company has "not had a contract to perform any services for the Harris for President campaign, the Biden for President campaign," or the DNC in the current election, and has not communicated with the presidential campaigns at all about the case.
"By suggesting that Authentic’s work is connected to those proceedings—in which a jury of Donald Trump’s peers found him guilty on 34 felony counts of falsifying business records—the Committee is severely misleading the public," Nellis wrote.
He said both he and the judge's daughter have "faced death threats and harassment, and suffered reputational damage" since "these unfounded allegations surfaced."
In his latest ruling rejecting Trump's request to step aside, Merchan noted that Trump had previously lodged the same unsuccessful conflict allegations "that have already been denied by this and higher courts.” The judge said he “now reiterates for the third time, that which should already be clear — innuendo and mischaracterizations do not a conflict create.”
The judge has issued a partial gag order barring Trump from publicly criticizing his daughter, individual prosecutors, court staff and their family members until after the sentencing. Trump had repeatedly criticized the judge's daughter on social media before the trial started.
In a post Wednesday on Truth Social, Trump complained that the gag order, which he's appealed unsuccessfully, is "voter interference" and added that he “must get U.S. Supreme Court involved. New York is trying to steal the Election!”
This article was originally published on NBCNews.com
