Politics
Emboldened by Re-election, Trump Renews Bid to Overturn His Conviction
Donald J. Trump moved to dismiss his Manhattan criminal case, reflecting his expansive view of presidential power. The judge paused all activity in the case, including Mr. Trump’s sentencing.
President-elect Donald J. Trump is mounting a resurgent bid to dismiss his criminal conviction in New York in the wake of his electoral victory, hoping to clear his record of 34 felonies before returning to the White House, court records unsealed on Tuesday show.
Emboldened by the election results, Mr. Trump’s lawyers moved in recent days to throw out the case against the former and future president, who was convicted in May of falsifying records to cover up a sex scandal.
The Manhattan district attorney’s office, which prosecuted Mr. Trump, then asked to pause decisions in the case until Nov. 19 so it could weigh how to respond. And the judge overseeing the case, Juan M. Merchan, promptly granted the pause, effectively freezing any progress for the next week.
Justice Merchan was set to rule on several crucial issues this month, including Mr. Trump’s sentence, but that schedule is now on hold. A decision he was expected to issue Tuesday, relating to an earlier effort to dismiss the case, is indefinitely delayed.
In requesting the pause, one of the Manhattan prosecutors emailed the judge on Sunday to acknowledge the “unprecedented circumstances” and the need to weigh the competing interests of the jury’s verdict against “the office of the president,” a copy of the email released publicly on Tuesday shows.
In reply, one of Mr. Trump’s lawyers, Emil Bove, wrote that “the stay, and dismissal, are necessary to avoid unconstitutional impediments to President Trump’s ability to govern.”
