Trump urges federal court to throw out hush money verdict in last-ditch attempt to avoid sentence

The former president asks federal court to take his hush money case out of Judge Merchan’s courtroom

Donald Trump is asking a federal court to intervene in his hush money case in New York in the hopes of overturning his conviction on 34 felony counts of falsifying business records, or delaying a sentencing date scheduled for September.

Trump’s lawyers pleaded with a federal judge late on Thursday night to remove the case from Justice Juan Merchan, arguing that the case and evidence against him should be tossed out under the Supreme Court’s “immunity” ruling.

The case should instead be moved to an “unbiased forum, free from local hostilities,” where Trump’s attorneys will try to get his conviction overturned, they wrote in court filings.

Keeping the case in state court will “continue to cause direct and irreparable harm” to the Republican presidential candidate and his “groundbreaking” campaign, according to lawyers Emil Bove and Todd Blanche.

The filing also raises other grievances and allegations aimed at Judge Merchan and District Attorney Alvin Bragg that were dismissed in several courts.

“These ongoing harms must be stopped,” attorneys wrote.

“The impending election cannot be redone,” they added. “The currently unaddressed harm to the Presidency resulting from this improper prosecution will adversely impact the operations of the federal government for generations.”

If the motion is allowed to proceed, Judge Merchan may not be able to keep Trump’s sentencing date on the calendar.

Donald Trump speaks to supporters in Wisconsin on August 29 (Getty Images)

On May 30, a Manhattan jury found the former president guilty on all counts of falsifying business records in connection with a scheme to unlawfully influence the 2016 presidential election by concealing hush money payments to an adult film star whose story about having sex with Trump threatened to derail his campaign.

Judge Merchan is already preparing to rule on Trump’s motion in his court on whether the case should be tossed under the “immunity” decision, which determined that former presidents are shielded from criminal prosecution for actions tied to their official duties in office.

Shortly after the decision, Trump’s lawyers argued that “impermissible” evidence in the hush money trial includes Trump’s conversations with White House aides who testified at the trial, phone records from his time in office, and posts on Twitter, which they claim was “recognized as a formal channel of White House communication in the Trump Administration.”

Judge Merchan is expected to issue a decision on Trump’s arguments on September 16.

Trump’s sentencing is scheduled two days later, on September 18, though Trump has also pushed Judge Merchan to delay that court date until after November’s presidential election.

A federal judge has already rejected Trump’s claims that the allegations in the indictment against him were “official” duties that could be shielded from prosecution.

Last year, District Judge Alvin Hellerstein said that “the evidence overwhelmingly suggests that the matter was a purely personal item of the president — a cover-up of an embarrassing event.”

“Hush money paid to an adult film star is not related to a president’s official acts. It does not reflect in any way the color of the president’s official duties,” he wrote in July 2023.

Trump’s latest filing comes one day after he was freshly indicted in his federal election interference case, as special counsel Jack Smith — adjusting to the Supreme Court’s decision — recalibrates his long-running case against the former president for actions tied to his efforts to overturn the 2020 election