President-elect ‘s lawyers on Tuesday formally urged a state judge to drop the criminal case where he was convicted on 34 counts related to hush money paid to a former pornographic film actress in May this year.
Trump’s lawyers argued that would impede his ability to govern and “disrupt his transition efforts.”
“Local elected officials such as D.A Bragg have no valid basis to cause such disruptions,” defense lawyers Todd Blanche and Emil Boye wrote in a court filing in reference to the prosecutor of the case.
Trump has nominated both Blanche and Boye to senior positions in the Justice Department since his election win.
Sentencing currently delayed indefinitely
Justice Juan Merchan in Manhattan last month to give Trump the chance to seek dismissal.
The prosecutors with Bragg’s office had recommended suspending sentencing until after Trump’s second term as president was complete, but had indicated they would fight motions to drop the case altogether.
Trump’s legal team responded that this was “ridiculous” and would lead to sentencing around a decade after the investigation began.
Reference to Hunter Biden pardon in argument
Trump’s lawyers also mentioned , after his conviction on tax and gun charges, arguing that there were parallels in this case.
“President Biden asserted that his son was ‘selectively, and unfairly, prosecuted,’ and ‘treated differently,’” the legal team said.
Manhattan’s district attorney, they alleged, had engaged in the same type of political theater “that President Biden condemned” in pursuing Trump.
What was the case about?
.
He was accused of trying to conceal a $130,000 (roughly €125,000) payment to porn actor Stormy Daniels, just before the 2016 presidential election, to suppress her claim that they had sex a decade earlier. Prosecutors portrayed it as an attempt to avoid negative attention ahead of the vote.
Trump says her story was not true and denies any wrongdoing in the case.
Prosecutors alleged that Trump’s then-lawyer, Michael Cohen, paid Daniels, with Trump later reimbursing him and logging the payments as legal expenses to conceal their nature.
Trump had said the payments were properly characterized as legal expenses and that he intended to appeal the verdict even if the case is not dismissed.
have already been dropped or shelved in light of his election win. These include two sets of felony charges, connected to the January 6, 2021 uprising at Congress and .
msh/kb (AP, Reuters)
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