Donald Trump files motion to dismiss hush money case and set aside conviction due to election victory
Donald Trump has filed a motion to dismiss the hush money case in which he was convicted due to his victory in the US presidential election.
In May, a New York jury found Mr Trump guilty of 34 counts of falsifying business records to commit election fraud.
It was the first time a US president had been convicted of or charged with a criminal offence.
Mr Trump had tried to cover up “hush money” payments to a porn star in the days before the 2016 election.
When Stormy Daniels‘ claims of a sexual liaison threatened to upend his presidential campaign, Trump directed his lawyer to pay $130,000 (£102,000) to keep her quiet.
A judge delayed Mr Trump’s scheduled 26 November sentencing indefinitely last month to give him the chance to seek dismissal.
A dismissal would erase Mr Trump’s historic conviction, sparing him of a criminal record and possible prison sentence.
The judge could also decide to uphold the verdict and proceed to sentencing, delay the case until Mr Trump leaves office, wait until a federal appeals court rules on Trump’s parallel effort to get the case moved out of state court or choose some other option.
The president-elect’s lawyers argue having the case loom over his four-year presidential term that begins on 20 January would cause “unconstitutional impediments” to his ability to govern.
Prosecutors have until 9 December to respond.
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The filing references the pardon Joe Biden issued to his son on Monday, in which the president said Hunter Biden was “unfairly prosecuted” on gun and tax charges.
Mr Trump’s lawyers said: “President Biden argued that ‘raw politics has infected this process and it led to a miscarriage of justice’. These comments amounted to an extraordinary condemnation of President Biden’s own DOJ [department of justice]”.
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The Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg “has engaged in ‘precisely the type of political theatre’ that President Biden has condemned”, the filing added.
“This case is based on a contrived, defective, and unprecedented legal theory relating to 2017 entries in documents that were maintained hundreds of miles away from the White House where President Trump was running the country.”
The district attorney’s “disruptions to the institution of the presidency violate the presidential immunity doctrine because they threaten the functioning of the federal government,” the filing said.
The prosecutors’ “ridiculous suggestion that they could simply resume proceedings after President Trump leaves office, more than a decade after they commenced their investigation in 2018, is not an option,” the filing claimed.
Mr Trump’s lawyers also claimed the case should be thrown out because of his “extraordinary service” to the US, adding that his “civil and financial contributions to this city and the nation are too numerous to count”.
The president-elect has said he intends to nominate the lawyers who wrote the filing – Todd Blanche and Emil Bove – to top jobs in the justice department, which they criticise in the documents.
Charlie Kirk has been posthumously awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by Donald Trump.
The USA’s highest civilian honour was received by the conservative activist’s widow, Erika, at the White House.
Mr Kirk, 31, was fatally shot on 10 September while speaking at an event at Utah Valley University.
He founded Turning Point USA and toured American university campuses, debating students about current affairs.
Erika Kirk at the White House. Pic: Reuters
Erika Kirk and Donald Trump. Pic: Reuters
Addressing those attending the ceremony in the White House rose garden, the US president said they were there to “honour and remember a fearless warrior for liberty” and a “beloved leader who galvanised the next generation”.
He said Mr Kirk’s name was being entered “forever into the eternal roster of true American heroes”.
Mr Trump described Charlie Kirk as an “American patriot of the deepest conviction, the finest quality and the highest calibre”.
He said his nation had been “robbed” of an “extraordinary champion”.
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And Mr Trump said Mr Kirk was assassinated in the “prime of his life for boldly speaking the truth, for living his faith, and relentlessly fighting for a better and stronger America”.
The ceremony coincided with what would have been Mr Kirk’s 32nd birthday.
Mr Trump described Erika Kirk, now head of Turning Point USA, as someone who had “endured unspeakable hardship with unbelievable strength”.
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Charlie Kirk. File pic: AP
A 22-year-old man, Tyler Robinson, from the city of Washington in Utah has been charged with Mr Kirk’s murder. Prosecutors said they would seek the death penalty.
At a memorial event held at a stadium in Arizona, Erika Kirk told an enormous crowd she forgave her husband’s killer.
“The answer to hate is not hate,” she said.
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