UPDATE (3:45 p.m. PT): U.S. District Judge Alvin Hellerstein of the Southern District of New York denied former President Donald Trump's latest long-shot bid to delay his sentencing hearing, which is currently scheduled for September 18. In a four-page order, Hellerstein directly addressed arguments made by Trump's legal team that the case against Trump would potentially clash with a controversial ruling made by the U.S. Supreme Court that expanded presidential immunity to cover almost all "official acts."
“Nothing in the Supreme Court’s opinion affects my previous conclusion that the hush money payments were private, unofficial acts, outside the bounds of executive authority,” Hellerstein said. Todd Blanche and Emil Bove, Trump's attorneys, accused the state prosecution of being "purely political." Both also said that Manhattan prosecutors used evidentiary materials that would fall under the protection of the expanded presidential immunity, including the testimony of previous White House staffers.
Judge Hellerstein's ruling comes after Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg and his prosecutors told New York Supreme Court Justice Juan Merchan to not buy the argument filed by Blanche and Bove. As of this update, Trump's sentencing hearing will proceed as scheduled. Trump is running for a second term at the White House.
Judge Hellerstein's order is available here.
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NEW YORK—The office of Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg has criticized the latest attempt by former President Donald Trump to delay sentencing in the hush money case against him involving AVN Hall of Famer Stormy Daniels.
Trump was found guilty on 34 felony counts of falsifying business records in a conspiracy to pay Daniels to remain silent about an affair the two had at Lake Tahoe in 2006 to unlawfully sway the 2016 presidential election.
Last week, Trump's attorneys filed a longshot request with a federal district court asking that the trial be removed from the New York Supreme Court. Todd Blanche and Emil Bove, Trump's lead attorneys, said that this case caused "direct and irreparable harm" to Trump.
Presiding judge Juan Merchan scheduled sentencing for September 18 after pushing back the hearing after the U.S. Supreme Court adopted a controversial ruling that significantly expanded presidential immunity. Merchan is considering the findings of the high court.
However, Blanche and Bove have maintained that the prosecution's case against Trump falls apart when applying the immunity ruling. On the other hand, the prosecutors believe that Trump's defense falls short in providing standing to delay his sentencing hearing.
"Federal law is clear that proceedings in this court need not be stayed pending the district court's resolution of defendant's removal notice," reads a letter sent by the prosecution last week to Judge Merchan.
The letter adds that "the concerns [the] defendant expresses about timing are a function of his own strategic and dilatory litigation tactics."
Here, the prosecution directly addresses claims that Trump's attorneys believe sentencing before the 2024 presidential election could be harmful to the fairness of the race between Trump and Democratic nominee Kamala Harris.
