President-elect Donald Trump on Tuesday asked a New York state judge to dismiss the criminal case in which he was convicted in May of 34 felony counts related to secret payments to an adult film actress, citing his recent victory in the United States. Presidential elections scheduled for November 5.
Urging Judge Juan Merchan in Manhattan to overturn the guilty verdict and drop the charges, Trump’s lawyers said that the suspension of Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s case after he took office on January 20 would hinder his ability to govern.
“Local elected officials like DA Bragg have no valid basis for causing such a disturbance,” defense attorneys Todd Blanch and Emil Bove wrote in a court memorandum dated Dec. 2 and made public Tuesday.
In November, Trump nominated Blanche to serve as Deputy Attorney General, the second-highest position in the Justice Department during his administration. He nominated Boff to be Blanche’s first deputy and acting district attorney while Blanche awaits confirmation.
Last month, Merchan postponed Trump’s sentencing, previously scheduled for November 26, indefinitely to give him a chance to seek expulsion.
Prosecutors in Bragg’s office supported delaying sentencing to give Trump the opportunity to present his case for impeachment, although they said they would oppose such an effort. Prosecutors have until next Monday to respond.
The judge did not clarify when he would rule on Trump’s motion to dismiss, and did not set a new date for issuing the ruling.
Bragg’s office proposed postponing all proceedings in the case until Trump, 78, leaves the White House in 2029.
In their motion to dismiss, Trump’s lawyers called this proposal “ridiculous.” That means the ruling will occur more than a decade after the investigation began in 2018, they said.
A spokesman for the Prague office declined to comment.
Pardon Hunter Biden
At the beginning of their 72-page argument, Trump’s lawyers brought up Democratic President Joe Biden’s decision on Sunday to pardon his son Hunter Biden, who was convicted on weapons charges and pleaded guilty to tax violations.
Blanche and Bove said Biden’s statement that his son had been selectively prosecuted was an “extraordinary indictment” of his Justice Department.
Trump’s lawyers have repeatedly asserted that Bragg, a Democrat, coordinated Trump’s prosecution with the Biden administration, citing involvement in the case of Matthew Colangelo, a former Justice Department official.
“This case would not have been brought without the political views of President Trump,” the defense attorneys wrote.
As an elected district attorney, Bragg operates independently of the federal Department of Justice. Attorney General Merrick Garland, a Biden appointee who runs the Justice Department, denied Republican claims that he sent Colangelo to Bragg’s office to prosecute Trump.
“I did not send Mr. Colangelo anywhere,” Garland said in his testimony before Congress on June 4.
Boost for Stormy Daniels
The New York case dates back to $130,000 paid by former Trump lawyer Michael Cohen to film actress Stormy Daniels in exchange for her silence before the 2016 elections regarding a sexual encounter she said she had a decade ago with Trump, who denies it.
A Manhattan jury found Trump guilty of falsifying business records to cover up his compensation to Cohen. This was the first time that a US president – former or sitting – had been convicted or charged with a criminal offense.
Trump has pleaded not guilty in the case.
Trump was charged in three additional state and federal criminal cases in 2023, one related to secret documents he kept after leaving office and two others related to his efforts to overturn his 2020 election loss.
He pleaded not guilty in all three cases. The Justice Department moved to dismiss the two federal cases after Trump won the election.