(New York) President-elect Donald Trump’s lawyers again urged a judge Friday to overturn his fraud conviction, balking at the prosecution’s suggestion that they preserve the verdict by handling the case as some courts do when a accused dies. They called the idea “absurd.”
Posted at 6:22 p.m.
Michael R. Sisak et Jennifer Peltz
Associated Press
The Manhattan district attorney’s office is asking Judge Juan M. Merchan to “pretend that any of the assassination attempts against President Trump were successful,” Trump’s lawyers wrote in a scathing 23-page response.
In court documents released Tuesday, District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s office proposed a series of options to keep the historic conviction on the books after Mr. Trump’s lawyers filed papers earlier this month , requesting dismissal of the case.
They include freezing the case until the president-elect leaves office in 2029, agreeing that any future sentencing will not include prison time, or closing the case noting that he was convicted, but did not receive a sentence and his appeal was not resolved due to presidential immunity.
Mr. Trump’s lawyers, Todd Blanche and Emil Bove, reiterated their position on Friday that the only acceptable option is to vacate his conviction and dismiss his indictment, writing that any other option would interfere with the transition process and his ability to lead the country.
The Manhattan District Attorney’s Office declined to comment.
It is unclear how soon Judge Merchan will decide. He could grant Mr. Trump’s request to dismiss, follow one of the prosecution’s suggestions, wait for a federal appeals court to rule on the president-elect’s parallel effort to move the case out of court. state court, or choose another option.
Options dismantled point by point
In their response on Friday, Me Blanche and Me Bove debunked each of the prosecution’s suggestions.
Suspending the case until Mr. Trump leaves office would force the new president to govern while facing the “ongoing threat” of facing jail time, fines or other sanctions from the end of his mandate, wrote the two lawyers. Donald Trump, a Republican, takes office on January 20.
“To be clear, President Trump will never deviate from the public interest in response to these heavy-handed tactics,” the defense attorneys wrote. “However, the threat itself is unconstitutional. »
The prosecution’s suggestion that the judge could alleviate those concerns by promising not to sentence Mr. Trump to prison on grounds of presidential immunity is also a nonstarter, the lawyers wrote. Blanche and Bove. There Immunity law requires dropping the case, not just limiting sentencing options, they argued.
Todd Blanche and Emil Bove, both tipped by their client for high-ranking positions at the Justice Department, expressed outrage at the prosecution’s new suggestion that Judge Merchan was taking inspiration from Alabama and other states and would treat the matter as if Mr. Trump were dead. Both lawyers accused prosecutors of ignoring New York precedent and attempting to “manufacture” a solution “based on an extremely disturbing and irresponsible analogy between President Trump,” who survived assassination attempts in Pennsylvania in July and in Florida in September, “and a hypothetical defendant dead.”
Such an option normally comes into play when a defendant dies after being convicted, but before appeals are exhausted. It is unclear whether it is viable under New York law, but prosecutors suggested the magistrate could innovate in what is already a unique case.
“This remedy would prevent the defendant from being burdened during his presidency with ongoing criminal proceedings,” prosecutors wrote in their filing this week. But at the same time, it would not “precipitously dismiss” the “significant fact that the defendant was indicted and convicted by a jury of his peers.”
Prosecutors acknowledged that “presidential immunity requires accommodation” during Donald Trump’s imminent return to the White House, but argued that his election to a second term should not overturn the jury’s verdict, which was rendered when he was no longer in office.
Avoiding opprobrium
Longstanding Justice Department policy states that sitting presidents cannot be criminally prosecuted. Mr. Trump has been fighting for months to overturn his May 30 conviction on 34 counts of falsifying business records. Prosecutors said he falsified the documents to conceal a US$130,000 payment to pornographic actress Stormy Daniels to counter her possible revelations that they had sex a decade earlier, which Mr. Trump denies.
Donald Trump’s bribery conviction was handed down in state court, meaning a presidential pardon – granted by Joe Biden or himself when he takes office – would not apply to the case. Presidential pardons only apply to federal crimes.
The Republican billionaire’s sentencing in the bribery case was scheduled for the end of November. But after Mr. Trump’s election victory on November 5, Judge Merchan suspended the proceedings and indefinitely postponed the sentencing of the former and future president so that the defense and prosecution could consider the future of the case.
The magistrate also delayed a ruling on Mr. Trump’s earlier attempt to dismiss the case on immunity grounds.
A rejection would erase the president-elect’s conviction, sparing him the opprobrium of a criminal record and possible prison time. Mr. Trump is the first former president to be convicted of a crime and the first convicted felon to be elected to office.
