Former President Trump on Wednesday made another stab at trying to delay his criminal sentencing, now two weeks away.
Trump is hoping to move his hush money case from state to federal court, but U.S. District Judge Alvin Hellerstein rejected the effort in a ruling issued Tuesday.
The former president’s attorneys are newly asking Hellerstein to put his denial on hold as they appeal to the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, seemingly hoping that doing so would prevent Trump’s Sept. 18 sentencing from moving forward until the appeal is resolved.
“The national public has an interest in free and fair elections, unburdened by the potential for the unlawful incarceration of President Trump by local officials in a single county,” Trump attorneys Emil Bove and Todd Blanche wrote in court filings.
“The public would therefore benefit from a stay that could allow Justice Merchan to avoid the ‘rat’s nest of comity and federalism issues’ attendant to the Presidential immunity defense and President Trump’s potential sentencing in the weeks before the election while the Second Circuit determines whether the appropriate forum is in this District,” they continued.
Trump was found guilty in May on 34 counts of falsifying business records connected to hush money deals during his successful 2016 presidential campaign.
Trump has twice attempted to move the case from state to federal court, a process known as removal, by connecting his prosecution to his official role as president.
Hellerstein rejected the first attempt months before Trump’s trial, sending the case back to state court, and the former president later abandoned his appeal.
In recent days, Trump has mounted a second push by latching onto the Supreme Court’s landmark presidential immunity decision, insisting the federal courts must take over.
Hellerstein, an appointee of former President Clinton, declined Trump’s request Tuesday, writing that “nothing in the Supreme Court’s opinion affects my previous conclusion.”
“President Trump respectfully disagrees with the Court’s view,” Trump’s attorneys wrote in their new motion.
The motion indicates Trump is similarly asking the 2nd Circuit to put the ruling on hold until it can resolve the former president’s appeal.
It is one of the multiple strategies Trump’s legal team has employed to stave off his sentencing until after the presidential election, when Trump hopes to win the White House and halt the case.
His attorneys have separately asked his state trial judge to delay the sentencing until after the election.
Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s (D) office has opposed Trump’s effort to delay his sentencing so he can move courts but expressed openness to a postponement on other grounds.