Trump’s lawyers want hush money lawsuit filed against the next US president to be dismissed

Donald Trump’s lawyers told the judge that the Republican’s conviction for illegally covering up hush money payments to a porn star should be thrown out because Trump won the US presidential election and a sentence would threaten the stability of the government.

In a letter filed Tuesday and made public Wednesday, attorneys for the Republican president-elect asked New York State Supreme Court Justice Juan Merchan for permission to file a formal motion laying out their arguments by Dec. 20.

“Just as a sitting president is immune from any criminal process, President Trump is immune as president-elect,” the attorneys wrote.

Trump, 78, was scheduled to be sentenced on Nov. 26, but Merchan paused all proceedings in the case last week at the request of Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s office.

Bragg’s office has said it will oppose Trump’s bid to dismiss the case and has suggested the trial should be paused until Trump completes his four-year term as president starting Jan. 20, but has not publicly endorsed that option.

Trump, president from 2017 to 2021, hopes to take office for a second term without any of the four criminal trials he faces that some opponents predict could derail his bid to return to the White House in 2024.

Republican Trump was convicted in May of falsifying business records to cover up a $130,000 payment his former lawyer, Michael Cohen, made to adult film actress Stormy Daniels for her silence about a sexual relationship she said she had with Trump before the 2016 election. .

This was the first time a U.S. president (former or sitting) was convicted or charged with a crime.

Trump has pleaded not guilty in the case, which he has long portrayed as a politically motivated attempt by Democrat Bragg to interfere with his campaign.

Continuing the trial after Trump’s election victory would be “uniquely destabilizing” and threaten to “disrupt the functioning of the entire apparatus of government,” Trump’s lawyers said in a letter Tuesday.

Forgery of business records is punishable by up to four years in prison. Before his election, experts said it was unlikely but not impossible that Trump would face penalties such as fines or probation.

Trump’s victory over Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris in the Nov. 5 election has made the prospect of a prison or probation sentence even more politically fraught and impractical, given that a sentence could impede his ability to perform the duties of the presidency.

Trump was indicted in three more state and federal lawsuits in 2023, one involving classified documents he withheld after leaving office and two others involving his efforts to overturn his 2020 election loss.

In July, a Florida-based federal judge dismissed the documents lawsuit. The Justice Department is currently evaluating how to end the federal election-related case. Trump also faces criminal charges in the state for his attempt to overturn his 2020 loss in Georgia, but the case remains unclear.

As president, Trump would not have the authority to dismiss the New York or Georgia cases because they were filed in state courts. The Justice Department can close federal cases.

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