Trump attempts to stonewall sentencing for his hush money conviction

• Trump sentencing set for Jan 10, days before inauguration.
• Defence lawyers to appeal decisions upholding verdict.
• Jury found Trump guilty in May of falsifying records.

US President-elect Donald Trump asked a New York judge on Monday to delay his Jan. 10 sentencing on his criminal conviction on charges stemming from hush money paid to a porn star.

Trump's lawyers said in a court filing that they plan to file appeals on Monday of Justice Juan Merchan's decisions denying Trump's bids to dismiss the case due to presidential immunity and the demands of the presidential transition period.

The lawyers, Todd Blanche and Emil Bove, asked Merchan to hold off on sentencing Trump while the appeals play out. Any delay would make it unlikely that Trump would be sentenced before his January 20 inauguration.

They asked Merchan to notify them by 2pm EST (1900 GMT) on Monday whether he would delay the sentencing to give them time to appeal his decision if necessary.

Merchan set the sentencing date on Friday, but signalled that Trump would be unlikely to face jail or other legal consequences. The judge said Trump, 78, may appear at his sentencing either in person or virtually.

The case stemmed from a $130,000 payment Trump's former lawyer Michael Cohen made to adult film actor Stormy Daniels to keep her quiet about a sexual encounter she said she had with Trump, who denies it.

After a six-week trial in state criminal court in Manhattan, a jury in May found Trump guilty on 34 felony counts of falsifying records to mask the payment prior to the 2016 election.

Trump spokesperson Steven Cheung said in a statement that Trump's victory in the Nov. 5 presidential election showed that the American people wanted "an immediate end to the weaponization of our justice system."

Trump, a Republican, has long argued that Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg, a Democrat, brought the case to harm his re-election campaign. Bragg has said that his office routinely brings felony falsification of business records charges.

Bragg's office will file a response to Trump's bid for a sentencing delay with the court on Monday afternoon, a spokesperson said.

Presidential immunity

The hush money case made Trump the first US president — sitting or former — to be charged with and convicted of a crime. Since the verdict, his lawyers have made two unsuccessful attempts to have the case tossed.

First, they argued that the US Supreme Court's July finding in a separate criminal case against Trump that presidents cannot be prosecuted for official acts meant the hush money case must be dismissed. Merchan rejected that effort in December, writing that the hush money case concerned Trump's personal conduct.

After Trump's win, his lawyers argued that having the case hang over him while he was president would impede his ability to govern. Merchan denied that bid on Friday, writing that overturning the jury's verdict would be an affront to the rule of law.

In scheduling Trump's sentencing on Friday, the judge noted that he was not inclined to send Trump to jail. He wrote that a sentence of unconditional discharge - meaning no custody, fine or probation - would be the most practical approach given Trump's looming inauguration.

In their Monday filing, Trump's lawyers said Merchan's intention not to penalise Trump was "of no moment."

"Presidential immunity violations cannot be ignored in favour of a rushed pre-inauguration sentencing," the lawyers wrote.

Trump was charged in three other state and federal criminal cases in 2023: one involving classified documents he kept after leaving office and two others involving his efforts to overturn his 2020 election loss.

He pleaded not guilty in all three cases. The Justice Department moved to dismiss the two federal cases after Trump's election victory.