President-elect Donald Trump asked the U.S. Supreme Court on Wednesday to halt his criminal proceedings in New York, two days before his scheduled sentencing by New York State Supreme Court Judge Juan Merchan.
Mr. Trump wants the justices to order the New York court to hold off on the sentencing while he appeals the trial judge’s decision that presidential immunity from the case did not apply. He says the New York court wrongly denied his motion to dismiss the case.
“This Court should enter an immediate stay of further proceedings in the New York trial court to prevent grave injustice and harm to the institution of the Presidency and the operations of the federal government,” his filing read.
Mr. Trump’s lawyers argue presidential immunity applies to the case because prosecutors used evidence related to the president’s official acts.
They say the high court’s ruling last year that a president is absolutely immune from core presidential functions and presumed immune from other official acts, while not immune from unofficial acts, applies to the state criminal prosecution.
Mr. Trump is scheduled to be sentenced on Friday at 9:30 a.m.
A Manhattan jury convicted the former president in May of falsifying business records in an attempt to hide hush money payments to porn actress Stormy Daniels.
The conviction of Mr. Trump is historic — the first time a former president has faced criminal charges that have gone to trial. He was found guilty of all 34 counts.
The justices asked for a response from the New York prosecutors by Thursday at 10 a.m., roughly 24 hours before the sentencing is set to take place.
Mr. Trump is seeking redress from the highest federal court after striking out with the New York courts. Judge Merchan denied his request for a stay of the sentencing pending further appeals, and a state appellate judge on Tuesday said she saw no compelling reason to postpone Mr. Trump’s sentencing.
Time is of the essence.
While Judge Merchan said he would not impose jail time on the president-elect, Mr. Trump is furious that he will face a criminal judge 10 days before his inauguration in Washington.
Mr. Trump’s attorneys said the request for a stay is a routine practice when there are pending appeals, “rendering the New York courts’ refusal to stay proceedings all the more astonishing and unlawful.”
“The New York courts’ insistence on holding a criminal sentencing before President Trump’s appeals on immunity are resolved reflects the justice of the Queen of Hearts: ‘Sentence first — verdict afterwards,’” the lawyers wrote.
It is unclear whether the Supreme Court will have any appetite to intervene.
Josh Blackman, a professor at South Texas College of Law, said it is “unlikely” the high court will step in. He said Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. and Justices Brett Kavanaugh and Amy Coney Barrett will not want to appear as if they are helping Mr. Trump, although Justices Samuel A. Alito Jr. and Clarence Thomas might dissent.
Special counsel Jack Smith moved to dismiss two federal probes against Mr. Trump before he takes office, citing Department of Justice precedent that says sitting presidents shouldn’t face criminal prosecution.
Mr. Trump’s situation in New York is different because he’s been convicted by a jury and would be president-elect — not president — if sentencing proceeds on Friday.
A Manhattan jury convicted Mr. Trump in May, though the president-elect managed to stave off sentencing multiple times during his campaign.
Failure to sentence Mr. Trump before the inauguration would leave prosecutors and the court with few options to close out the case, given the general prohibition on prosecuting a sitting president and the awkwardness of waiting until he leaves office in 2029. Mr. Trump would be 82 years old by that time.
During the trial, prosecutors said Mr. Trump criminally concealed payments to Ms. Daniels around the 2016 campaign with an intent to violate election laws.
They said Mr. Trump paid Ms. Daniels through Michael Cohen and concealed reimbursements to the lawyer in 2017 by misidentifying checks.
Mr. Trump’s lawyers said he was busy running the country and thought he was paying Mr. Cohen for legal services, so his team logged the checks in that manner.
They also said the prosecution used novel legal theories and amounted to a political hit job against Mr. Trump’s presidential campaign.
Mr. Trump defeated Vice President Kamala Harris in November.
• Tom Howell Jr. can be reached at thowell@washingtontimes.com.
• Alex Swoyer can be reached at aswoyer@washingtontimes.com.
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