Donald Trump is seeking to postpone his March 25 impeachment trial until the Supreme Court rules on presidential immunity claims he has raised in another criminal case.
Lawyers for the former Republican president on Monday asked Manhattan Judge Juan Manuel Merchan to postpone the criminal trial in New York indefinitely until Trump's claim for immunity in the election interference case in Washington, D.C., is resolved. Merchan did not rule immediately.
Trump asserts that he enjoys immunity from prosecution for conduct allegedly involving official business during his term. His lawyers say some of the evidence and actions alleged in the secret money case overlap with his time in the White House and constitute official acts.
The Supreme Court is scheduled to hear arguments on April 25, a month after the scheduled start of jury selection in Trump's financial case. This is the first of four criminal cases scheduled to go to trial as he approaches the Republican presidential nomination in his bid to reclaim the White House.
The Manhattan District Attorney's Office declined to comment. Prosecutors are expected to respond to Trump's request for a delay in court papers later this week.
Trump first raised the issue of immunity in his criminal case in Washington, which includes allegations that he worked to overturn the results of the 2020 election in the lead-up to the violent insurrection by his supporters at the US Capitol on January 6, 2021.
The hush money case centers on allegations that Trump falsified his company's internal records to hide the true nature of payments to his former lawyer Michael Cohen, who helped Trump bury negative stories during his 2016 presidential campaign. Among other things, Cohen paid porn actress Stormy Daniels $130,000. To suppress her allegations of an extramarital sexual encounter with Trump years ago.
Trump's lawyers say some of the evidence that Manhattan prosecutors plan to introduce in the silent money trial, including messages he posted on social media in 2018 about money paid to Cohen, was from his presidency and constitute official acts.
Trump last year pleaded not guilty to 34 felony counts of falsifying business records. He has denied having any sexual encounter with Daniels, whose real name is Stephanie Clifford, and his lawyers say the payments to Cohen were legitimate legal expenses and not part of any cover-up.
A federal judge last year rejected Trump's claim that the allegations in the secret money indictment related to official duties, and nixed his attempt to move the case from state court to federal court. Had the case moved to federal court, Trump's lawyers could have tried to dismiss the charges on the grounds that federal officials enjoy immunity from prosecution for actions taken as part of their official duties.
“The evidence overwhelmingly indicates that this was purely a personal matter for the president — to cover up an embarrassing event,” U.S. District Judge Alvin Hellerstein wrote last July. “Money paid for the silence of an adult movie star has nothing to do with the official actions of the President. It in no way reflects the color of the official duties of the President.”
Trump's lawyers appealed Hellerstein's ruling, but dropped the appeal in November. They said they do it with prejudice, which means they can't change their minds.
The question of whether a former president is immune from federal prosecution for official acts taken while in office has not been legally tested.
Prosecutors in the Washington case said there was no such immunity, and in any case, none of the actions Trump allegedly took counted in the indictment charging him with plotting to overturn the 2020 presidential election after his loss to Democrat Joe Biden. Official acts.
Both a trial judge in Washington and a federal appeals court ruled against Trump, but the Supreme Court agreed last month to reconsider the matter — a decision that delays the federal case in Washington and raises uncertainty about when it might reach trial. .
Sisak writes for the Associated Press. AP correspondent Eric Tucker in Washington contributed to this report.
