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USA- The United States President-elect Donald Trump has asked the Supreme Court to pause proceedings in his New York criminal case which is scheduled for sentencing on Friday, few days to his inauguration.
In a request for emergency relief filed with the Supreme Court, the president-elect asked the justices to temporarily block further criminal proceedings in New York state court, including his upcoming sentencing, before he takes office.
Trump’s bid comes days after a New York appeals court rejected his appeal to postpone his sentencing.
His lawyers on Wednesday, argued that a president’s immunity from criminal proceedings extends to the transition period, between the election and inauguration. In addition to asking the Supreme Court to enter a stay, Trump’s lawyers said they have simultaneously asked the New York Court of Appeals, the state’s highest court, to block the proceedings.
Trump’s lawyers said they have simultaneously asked the New York Court of Appeals, the state’s highest court, to block the proceedings.
Meanwhile, a spokesperson for the state high court said “It has received no filings about Trump’s sentencing from his legal team so far.”
In their submission to the Supreme Court, Trump’s lawyers argued that the justices should step in and pause his sentencing “to prevent grave injustice and harm to the institution of the presidency and the operations of the federal government.
They argue that the case should not go forward because Trump was protected by presidential immunity, as recognized by the Supreme Court earlier this year.
“The Supreme Court’s historic decision on Immunity, the Constitution, and established legal precedent mandate that this meritless hoax be immediately dismissed,” Trump spokesman Steven Cheung said in a statement.
Justice Juan Merchan, who presided over the trial, initially postponed Trump’s scheduled sentencing in July in the wake of the Supreme Court’s ruling setting a new standard for presidential immunity
But Merchan later concluded Trump does not have immunity until he is sworn in as president. He then directed Trump’s sentencing on 34 felony counts of falsifying business records to take place Friday morning.
The Supreme Court’s contentious presidential immunity ruling came in a separate case in which Trump was charged with seeking to overturn the 2020 presidential election results. With Trump about to become president again, that case has now been dropped.
The court ruled that certain official acts taken by presidents are off-limits for criminal prosecution. Actions taken by a president in their capacities would not be protected.
The former United States president was convicted last May on 34 felony counts of falsifying business records, which prosecutors said Trump did in the run-up to the 2016 presidential election to hide an affair that could have been politically damaging.
