The U.S President-elect, Donald Trump, on Monday, urged a Manhattan court to delay his sentencing scheduled for January 10, in his criminal conviction.
Trump was convicted in May on 34 felony counts of falsifying business records.
The charges stemmed from a $130,000 payment made through his former personal lawyer in 2016 to silence porn actor Stormy Daniels, who alleged she had a sexual encounter with Trump a decade earlierโa claim he consistently denied.
Trumpโs sentencing was originally scheduled for July 11, 2024, but was postponed twice at the request of his lawyers.
It was eventually rescheduled to a date in late November 2024 after the presidential election, which Trump eventually won, prompting the court to put everything on hold to consider what to do.
In last weekโs ruling, the presiding judge, Juan M. Merchan, fixed his sentencing for January 10, just 10 days before Trumpโs inauguration, rejecting the former presidentโs arguments that his election victory should mark an end to the case.
Justice Merchan, however, indicated that he might lean towards a sentence that would amount to just closing the case without any real punishment. He said Trump could attend the January 10 proceeding remotely due to his transition duties.
Trumpโs lawyers informed the court that they are appealing its recent rulings upholding the juryโs guilty verdict and argued that the judge should halt the case in the meantime.
โThe Court should vacate the sentencing hearing scheduled for January 10, 2025, and suspend all further deadlines in the case until President Trumpโs immunity appeals are fully and finally resolved, which should result in a dismissal of this case, which should have never been brought in the first place,โ Trumpโs lawyers wrote in the new filing, which was made public on Monday.
โBy virtue of President Trumpโs filing of appellate proceedings raising his claims of Presidential immunity, all proceedings in this Court are automatically stayed by operation of federal constitutional law,โ they added.