Republican presidential hopeful Donald Trump, campaigning.
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Trump wants a delay in his NY hush money trial until SCOTUS determines if he has blanket immunity.The Constitution shields presidents from state prosecution for “official acts,” his lawyers say.Things he’s said about a $130,000 payment to Stormy Daniels were part of his job, they claim.
In a remarkable, eleventh-hour request, lawyers for Donald Trump on Monday asked a judge to delay his New York hush money trial on presidential blanket-immunity grounds.
In papers filed in Manhattan, Trump’s attorneys asked New York Supreme Court Justice Juan Merchan to delay the March 25 trial start date until the US Supreme Court decides on his federal election interference case.
Oral arguments in that case, in which he claims blanket immunity from prosecution for “official acts” made while president, are set for April 25.
“The scope of ‘official acts’ for purposes of applying presidential immunity is a developing area of the law that the Supreme Court is expected to address, at least to a certain extent, in Trump v. United States,” the papers argue, referring to the DC case.
Monday’s 26-page defense filing does not explain how anything Trump said about his alleged commission of 34 counts of falsifying business documents in the Manhattan felony case can be understood as “official acts.”
Trump is accused of falsifying 34 checks, invoices, and ledger entries to disguise the hush money payment as legal expenses.
Manhattan prosecutors allege the October 28, 2016 payment to Daniels was an illegal campaign expenditure, made on the brink of the election to keep the porn actress from speaking publicly about an alleged affair with Trump.
Manhattan prosecutors have yet to respond to the filing.
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