Citing President Joe Biden’s recent pardon of his son, Hunter Biden, who had been convicted of tax and gun charges, President-elect Donald Trump’s lawyers formally asked a judge Monday to throw out his hush money criminal conviction. In a filing made public Tuesday, his lawyers argued that continuing the case would present unconstitutional “disruptions to the institution of the Presidency,“ the Associated Press reports. They told Manhattan Judge Juan M. Merchan that anything short of immediate dismissal would undermine the transition of power, as well as the “overwhelming national mandate” granted to Trump by voters last month, the Associated Press reports. In relation to President Biden’s Pardon of Hunter, Trump’s legal team wrote that Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg, had engaged in the type of political theater “that President Biden condemned” when President Biden asserted that his son was ‘selectively, and unfairly, prosecuted,’ and ‘treated differently,’”
Prosecutors will have until Dec. 9 to respond. They have said they will fight any efforts to dismiss the case but have indicated a willingness to delay the sentencing until after Trump’s second term ends in 2029. In their filing Monday, Trump’s attorneys dismissed the idea of holding off sentencing until Trump is out of office as a “ridiculous suggestion.” Following Trump’s election victory last month, Merchan halted proceedings and indefinitely postponed his sentencing, previously scheduled for late November, to allow the defense and prosecution to weigh in on the future of the case. He also delayed a decision on Trump’s prior bid to dismiss the case on immunity grounds. Trump has been fighting for months to reverse his conviction on 34 counts of falsifying business records to conceal a $130,000 payment to porn actor Stormy Daniels to suppress her claim that they had sex a decade earlier. He says they did not and denies any wrongdoing. The defense filing was signed by Trump lawyers Todd Blanche and Emil Bove, who represented Trump during the trial and have since been selected by the president-elect to fill senior roles at the Justice Department.
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