Trump moves to overturn sex scandal cover-up conviction, citing immunity decision
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The move from Donald Trump’s lawyers came 10 days before a judge was set to sentence the former president for his crimes in Manhattan.
PHOTO: NYT
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NEW YORK – Former US president Donald Trump began an effort on July 1 to throw out his recent criminal conviction in New York City and postpone his upcoming sentencing, citing a new Supreme Court ruling that granted him broad immunity from prosecution for official actions he took as president, according to a person with knowledge of the matter.
In a letter to the judge overseeing the case, Trump’s lawyers sought permission to file a motion to set aside the verdict, doing so just hours after the Supreme Court issued its landmark ruling involving one of Trump’s other criminal cases.
The letter will not be public until July 2, after which prosecutors will have a chance to respond.
The move from Trump’s lawyers came 10 days before a judge was set to sentence the former president for his crimes in Manhattan, where a jury convicted him on 34 felony counts related to his cover-up of a sex scandal in the run-up to the 2016 election.
Trump’s lawyers asked Judge Juan Merchan to postpone the July 11 sentencing while the judge weighs whether the Supreme Court ruling affects the conviction.
The effort to set aside the conviction might be a long shot. The Manhattan case centres on acts Trump took as a candidate, not a president.
Yet his lawyers are likely to argue that prosecutors built their case partly on evidence from his time in the White House. Under the Supreme Court’s new ruling, prosecutors not only may not charge a president for any official acts, but also cannot cite evidence involving official acts to bolster other accusations.
It is unclear how the Manhattan district attorney’s office, which brought the case, will respond, or whether the judge will delay the first sentencing of an American president. But Trump’s effort appeared to cause at least a brief interruption: The district attorney’s office did not make a sentencing recommendation to the judge about whether to imprison Trump, as was expected on July 1.
A spokesperson for the district attorney’s office declined to comment.
The sentencing is likely to be the only moment of criminal accountability that the four-times indicted Trump will face before election day, when he hopes to reclaim the White House.
Trump faces up to four years in prison, but could receive probation on the convictions for falsifying business records – among the lowest level of felonies. NYTIMES
