Donald Trump's lawyers urge judge to throw out jury's hush money verdict before he takes office

A day after Manhattan prosecutors vowed to fight to uphold President-elect Donald Trump’s historic criminal conviction in his hush money case, Trump’s defense team urged the presiding judge to dismiss the case before Trump becomes president in January.

In a letter to Supreme Court Justice Juan Merchan released publicly Wednesday, Trump’s legal team argued the jury's guilty verdict should be thrown out because it threatens to interfere with Trump’s transition and new administration.

"Immediate dismissal of this case is mandated by the federal Constitution, the Presidential Transition Act of 1963, and the interests of justice, in order to facilitate the orderly transition of Executive power following President Trump’s overwhelming victory in the 2024 Presidential election," wrote Trump attorneys Todd Blanche and Emil Bove.

Trump announced plans last week to nominate Blanche and Bove to high-ranking posts in the Department of Justice.

The defense asked Merchan, who has yet to rule on an earlier bid for dismissal based on a U.S. Supreme Court ruling that granted immunity to presidents for official acts, to set a Dec. 20 deadline for it to file a brief on the new dismissal claims in light of Trump’s Nov. 5 election to the presidency. Trump’s lawyers said federal prosecutors at the Department of Justice are preparing to dismiss its two pending cases — the Jan. 6 case and the classified documents case — against Trump early next month and the Dec. 20 deadline would allow them to address the arguments made by the DOJ in their submission to Merchan.

Manhattan prosecutors, in a letter released Tuesday, said they opposed Trump’s efforts to overturn the jury’s verdict, but agreed to postpone his sentencing and would give "consideration" to delaying it for up to four years — the span of his presidential term.

Trump’s sentencing had been scheduled for Tuesday.

Trump was convicted in May of 34 felony counts of falsifying business records to hide $130,000 in hush money to an adult film actress with whom he had a sexual liaison that prosecutors argued Trump was desperate to conceal from the American public as he ran for president in the 2016 election cycle.

Trump was the first president or former president to be convicted of a crime. Trump was also the first former president to be held in contempt of court after Merchan did so when Trump violated an order prohibiting him from speaking publicly about court staff or jurors.

If Trump is sentenced, he faces up to 4 years in prison. Though some legal experts have speculated that Trump, who has no prior criminal convictions, would likely receive probation.

At Trump’s trial earlier this year, prosecutors alleged Trump plotted a "criminal conspiracy" to win the election about two months after he announced his first run for president in June 2015.

Trump executed a series of "catch and kill" plans by paying off people alleging to have negative stories about him in partnership with his then-personal attorney Michael Cohen and tabloid publisher David Pecker, prosecutors said.

Prosecutors said adult film actress Stormy Daniels was paid $130,000; former Playboy model Karen McDougal, who also alleged to have had an affair with Trump, was paid $150,000; and Dino Sajudin, a door attendant at Trump Tower who had shopped a false story that Trump fathered a child outside his marriage, was paid $30,000.

By Nicole Fuller

nicole.fuller@newsday.com@NicoleFuller

Nicole Fuller is Newsday's senior criminal justice reporter. She began working at Newsday in 2012 and previously covered local government.