Lawyers for Donald Trump have asked the US Supreme Court to block the president-elect’s Manhattan hush-money sentencing, currently set for Friday.
Justice Sonia Sotomayor is assigned to handle emergency applications from New York for the court.
The 525-page application filed by Trump on Wednesday morning refers to presidential immunity more than 300 times. Sotomayor, nominated by President Barack Obama in 2009, issued a scathing dissent of the high court’s July 1 opinion granting presidents broad immunity from prosecution.
Trump’s 11th-hour bid to avoid sentencing comes one day after a New York appellate judge nixed a similar stay, rejecting arguments by a defense lawyer that presidential immunity from prosecution extends to presidents-elect.
The nation’s highest court has asked prosecutors with the office of Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg to file response papers by 10 a.m. Thursday. A spokesperson for Bragg declined comment, saying, “We will respond in court papers.”
Trump is seeking “to correct the unjust actions by New York courts and stop the unlawful sentencing in the Manhattan D.A.’s Witch Hunt,” Trump spokesman Steven Cheung said. “The Supreme Court’s historic decision on Immunity, the Constitution, and established legal precedent mandate that this meritless hoax be immediately dismissed.”
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