Lawyers for Donald Trump, the first former US president to be convicted of a criminal offence, in New York at the end of May, requested on Thursday that the case be sent to federal courts, in the hope of having his conviction overturned.
In their motion, the lawyers cited the Supreme Court’s recent ruling on presidential immunity and asked that the Manhattan federal district court take up the case.
They also argued that the case violated the constitutional rights of the Republican candidate in the Nov. 5 presidential election.
“The ongoing proceedings will continue to cause direct and irreparable harm to President Trump – the front-runner in the 2024 presidential election – and to voters far beyond Manhattan.”argued attorneys Todd Blanche and Emil Bove in their 64-page motion.
Mr Trump was convicted of 34 counts of falsifying accounting records to cover up a $130,000 payment to porn actress Stormy Daniels just before his 2016 presidential victory to keep quiet about a sexual relationship she said she had with him in 2006, which Daniels has always denied.
He became the first former US president to be convicted of a criminal offence on May 30 in a Manhattan court.
His sentence – with a minimal risk of a prison sentence – should have been pronounced on July 11 but was postponed until September 18 thanks to the Supreme Court of the United States. With a conservative majority, the highest court, in an unprecedented decision on July 1, recognized the President of the United States with broad criminal immunity.
By a majority of six to three – conservative justices against progressives – the Court held that “The President has no immunity for his unofficial acts” but that he “is entitled to at least a presumption of immunity for his official acts”.
In their motion, Mr. Trump’s lawyers say the bribe case should be moved to federal court to provide him with “an impartial forum, free from local hostilities, where he can seek redress for these violations of the Constitution”.
“Immediate access” to an impartial jurisdiction is “imperative and of the utmost urgency”argue Donald Trump’s defenders who, like the former president, have repeatedly claimed that his conviction in New York was unfair and politically motivated.
In July, his legal team asked the judge who presided over his trial to overturn his conviction, citing the Supreme Court ruling.
The question of the former Republican president’s immunity and therefore the cancellation of the New York trial will be decided on September 16 by Judge Merchan. If he rejects it, he will pronounce the sentence against Mr. Trump two days later, on the 18th.
“The integrity of the 2024 presidential election is at stake”Mr. Trump’s defenders argued in their motion.
They also asked that his sentencing be postponed until after the presidential election.
Targeted by four criminal proceedings, the Republican candidate who dreams of returning to the White House is doing everything he can to be tried as late as possible, in any case after the November 5 election.
He is being prosecuted by the federal courts and the State of Georgia for illegal attempts to reverse the results of the 2020 election won by Democrat Joe Biden.
If re-elected, Donald Trump could, once inaugurated in January 2025, order a halt to federal prosecutions against him.
