President-elect Donald Trump's lawyers urge judge to toss his hush money conviction

The attorneys for President-elect Donald Trump have asked a New York judge to throw out his historic criminal conviction in his hush money case, using President Joe Biden's recent pardon of his son Hunter to bolster their arguments.

Trump's attorneys, in a 69-page motion released Tuesday afternoon, asked the court to dismiss the indictment and set aside the jury's verdicts.

Trump's criminal defense attorneys Todd Blache and Emil Bove, both of whom have been named by Trump for top U.S. Justice Department posts, argued it would impede his presidency if the guilty verdicts stand.

"Wrongly continuing proceedings in this failed lawfare case disrupts President [elect] Trump's transition efforts and his preparations" for when he's sworn-in on Jan. 20, the motion said.

The lawyers argued Biden's comments about his son's pardon, in which he claimed his son was "selectively prosecuted," amounted to a rebuke of his own Department of Justice.

Trump's attorneys also mounted several other arguments for the judge to set aside the verdicts, including that prosecution witness Michael Cohen, who was also Trump's fixer, committed perjury and that Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg improperly infected the jury pool with comments he made about the case at a news conference.

Trump was convicted in May of 34 counts of falsifying business records, in an attempt, according to prosecutors, to hide from American voters his affair with an adult film actress in the run up to the 2016 election, which Trump won.

The prosecution has a Dec. 9 deadline to respond. Prosecutors have previously said they would fight against any effort to overturn the conviction, but indicated a willingness to delay Trump's sentencing until his second, four-year term as president has concluded.

Trump's defense called that a "ridiculous suggestion" and "not an option" in its motion released Tuesday.

Supreme Court Justice Juan M. Merchan has delayed Trump's sentencing indefinitely to allow for both the prosecution and defense to make legal arguments.

Merchan is also considering an earlier move by the defense to have the case dismissed based on presidential immunity, following a Supreme Court decision that said presidents are immune from criminal prosecution for official acts. The judge has not made a ruling in the immunity issue.

Trump  is the first former president to be convicted of a crime. Trump is 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.

Trump faces up to 4 years in prison if he is ever sentenced on the conviction. But some legal experts have speculated Trump, who has no prior criminal convictions, would likely receive probation.

Prosecutors have alleged Trump plotted a "criminal conspiracy" to win the 2016 election about two months after he announced his first run for president in June 2015.

Trump defeated Hillary Clinton in 2016. Trump ran for reelection in 2020, but Biden won. Trump, running for a third time, emerged victorious over Vice President Kamala Harris last month.

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

Prosecutors said adult film star Stormy Daniels was paid $130,000 to stay silent about their sexual tryst. Trump has denied the affair.

With Janon Fisher

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.