Donald Trump, the first former US president to be criminally convicted in late May in New York, wants to delay his sentence from mid-September until after the November 5 presidential election, according to a request from his lawyers.
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The Republican candidate, who dreams of returning to the White House, has been using arguments for months to delay his trial and, above all, to overturn this ruling.
Mr. Trump was convicted of 34 counts of falsifying accounting documents, with the intent to conceal, before his 2016 presidential election, a $130,000 payment to an adult film actress to keep quiet about a sexual relationship she said she had with him in 2006, which the person has always denied.
The former president's lawyer, Todd Blanche, said in a letter dated Wednesday to New York Judge Juan Merchan that there was “no legal basis to continue rushing” toward the Sept. 18 sentencing date, other than “pursuing goals that are purely political interference.”
“The ruling is scheduled to begin when early voting begins in the presidential election,” he added, and “by postponing it until after this election, the court will resolve, or even eliminate, issues of procedural fairness.”H white.
In a separate move on Wednesday, Trump's lawyers asked Judge Merchan to recuse himself on the grounds that his daughter's ties to the Democratic Party had fueled “a perception of a conflict of interest.”
The judge, who referred his personal case to an ethics committee of his peers, rejected the Republican billionaire's “baseless” arguments.
His sentencing, with minimal risk of imprisonment, was supposed to be announced on July 11, but was postponed until September 18 thanks to the US Supreme Court. With a conservative majority, the highest court obtained 1any July, presidential criminal immunity was expanded.
The former White House tenant (2017-2021) believes his trial was unnecessary.
But Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg, who referred him to court, argued in late July that there was no “immunity” for “unofficial acts” of a US president.
The immunity issue, and thus the dismissal of the New York trial, will be decided on September 16 by Judge Merchan. If he declines, he will pronounce the sentence against Mr. Trump two days later, on the 18th.
