Trump’s lawyers ask judge to halt Friday’s hush money case sentencing while they appeal

NEW YORK —  President-elect Donald Trump on Monday moved to indefinitely postpone this week’s sentencing in his hush money case as he appeals a ruling that upheld the verdict and put him on course to be the first president to take office convicted of crimes.

Trump’s lawyers say the case should be put on hold automatically while they ask a New York appeals court to reverse Judge Juan M. Merchan’s decision last week, which set the case for sentencing on Friday — little more than a week before his inauguration on Jan. 20.

If sentencing proceeds as scheduled, Trump’s lawyers argued, he will be appealing the verdict while in office and will be “forced to deal with criminal proceedings for years to come.” They raised an improbable scenario in which, if Trump wins his appeal, he could be then subjected to another criminal trial while in office.

Merchan rejected Trump’s bid to throw out the verdict in light of his impending return to the White House but signaled that he is not likely to sentence the Republican to any punishment for his conviction on 34 felony counts of falsifying business records.

Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform that it “would be the end of the Presidency as we know it” if the ruling is allowed to stand.

Trump’s lawyers, who are also challenging Merchan’s prior refusal to dismiss the case on presidential immunity grounds, say their appeal should trigger an automatic stay, or pause, in proceedings. If that doesn’t happen, they said, Merchan should step in and halt Friday’s sentencing.

They asking the judge to inform them by Monday afternoon of his decision “to allow sufficient time for President Trump to seek an emergency appellate review.”

“Today, President Trump’s legal team moved to stop the unlawful sentencing in the Manhattan D.A.’s Witch Hunt,” Trump spokesperson Steven Cheung said in a statement. “The Supreme Court’s historic decision on Immunity, the state constitution of New York, and other established legal precedent mandate that this meritless hoax be immediately dismissed.”

The Manhattan district attorney’s office, which prosecuted the case, said it will file a response with the court Monday afternoon.

Any delay in sentencing could run out the clock on closing the case before Trump’s second term begins in two weeks.

As president, Trump will again be immune from criminal proceedings, making it unlikely he can be sentenced while in office. If sentencing doesn’t happen before Trump is sworn in, waiting until he leaves office in 2029 “may become the only viable option,” Merchan said last week.

While Trump asserted that presidential immunity and his looming second term necessitated nixing the verdict, Merchan wrote in his Jan. 3 ruling that only “bringing finality to this matter” by sentencing him would serve the interests of justice.

The judge wrote that sentencing Trump to what’s known as an unconditional discharge — closing the case without jail time, a fine or probation — “appears to be the most viable solution.”

Acknowledging the demands of the transition process, Merchan had given Trump the option to attend in person or appear virtually by video. Whenever he is sentenced, Trump will have an opportunity to speak, as will his lawyers and prosecutors. Once he is sentenced, he can appeal the verdict, as he has vowed to do.

The charges involved an alleged scheme to hide a hush money payment to porn actor Stormy Daniels in the last weeks of Trump’s 2016 campaign to keep her from publicly repeating claims that she’d had sex with him years earlier. He says that her story is false and that he did nothing wrong.

The case centered on how Trump accounted for reimbursing his then-personal lawyer Michael Cohen, who had made the payment to Daniels. The conviction carried the possibility of punishment ranging from a fine or probation to up to four years in prison.

Cohen, a key prosecution witness who had previously called for Trump to be put in prison, said that, “based upon all of the intervening circumstances,” Merchan’s decision to sentence Trump without punishment “is both judicious and appropriate.”

Trump’s sentencing initially was set for last July 11, then postponed twice at the defense’s request. After Trump’s Nov. 5 election, Merchan delayed the sentencing again so the defense and prosecution could weigh in on the future of the case.

Sisak writes for the Associated Press.