Former President Donald Trump wants his sentencing in the hush money case to take place after the November election.
Trump’s attorneys call the Sept. 18 sentencing date nothing more than”naked election-interference objectives,” per ABC News.
Sentencing was first scheduled for July 11, but was delayed after the Supreme Court’s decision on presidential immunity.
Judge Juan Merchan said a ruling on Trump’s immunity claim will be handed down Sept. 16. Sentencing would be imposed two days later.
“That timing illustrates just how unreasonable it is to have the potential for only a single day between a decision on first-impression Presidential immunity issues and an unprecedented and unwarranted sentencing,” Trump’s lawyers wrote to Merchan Thursday.
Trump’s lawyers also questioned if sentencing should be held after the early voting has started.
“Finally, setting aside naked election-interference objectives, there is no valid countervailing reason for the Court to keep the current sentencing date on the calendar. There is no basis for continuing to rush,” Trump’s lawyers wrote.
This latest request come a day after Merchan denied for the third time Trump’s ask for the judge to step down from the case.
Merchan criticized Trump’s lawyers for raising “inaccurate and unsubstantiated claims” that Merchan should recuse himself due to an alleged conflict of interest involving his daughter and Vice President Kamala Harris.
Trump’s lawyers continued that argument in the letter asking a delayed sentencing.
Trump was convicted in May of 34 counts of falsifying business records.
It involved a hush payment to adult film actress Stormy Daniels in exchange for her silence on a sexual encounter the allegedly had and which Trump denies.
