President-elect Donald Trump is asking the Supreme Court to step in and block his impending sentencing on his conviction in a New York hush-money case.
Trump is expected to be sentenced on Friday after he was convicted on 34 felony counts of falsifying business records, The Associated Press reported. The records related to payments allegedly made to porn star Stormy Daniels. The payment was made during the 2016 election, The Washington Post reported.
Trump’s then-lawyer, Michael Cohen, paid Daniels $130,000 to stay quiet before the election. The payments made by Trump to Cohen were reimbursements, prosecutors said according to CNN.
The president-elect’s attorneys said the delay is needed “to prevent grave injustice and harm to the institution of the Presidency and the operations of the federal government.” They had said Trump has broad immunity from criminal prosecution as president, as decided by the Supreme Court, and that some of the evidence used in the hush money case should not have been used because of that decision.
The court has requested a response from the prosecution by Thursday morning. A spokesperson for Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg said, according to CNN, that the office “will respond in court papers.”
Trump has tried to delay the sentencing citing the presidential transition process and his Jan. 20 inauguration. He also said the verdict was not valid, the Post reported.
The New York appeals court already rejected the request to postpone the sentencing, CNN reported.
Judge Juan Merchan who presided over the trial last year said he would not fine, jail or give Trump probation, the AP reported.
Check back for more on this developing story.