Donald Trump launched another eleventh hour attempt to get his hush money case thrown out on Tuesday, days before he is due to be sentenced.
Less than 24 hours earlier, the judge in the case ruled that sentencing should go ahead on Friday as scheduled.
In response, Trump’s lawyers took their argument to New York appeals court on Tuesday morning.
The president-elect has maintained throughout the case that he is the victim of a political witch hunt.
A New York jury in April found the former president guilty on 34 counts of falsifying business records for trying to hide a $130,000 hush money payment to porn star Stormy Daniels.
For the six weeks of his trial, he moved his election campaign for Manhattan. Supporters gathered outside the criminal courthouse everyday, and political allies, members of Congress, and aides joined him in the courtroom in a show of strength.
His subsequent reelection dealt Judge Juan Merchan a conundrum, as he tried to balance meting out punishment with the constitutional difficulty of locking up a president.
On Monday, Trump’s lawyers asked him in a 17-page ruling to delay sentencing this week pending an appeal.
Donald Trump is due to be sentenced on Friday
‘Presidential immunity violations cannot be ignored in favor of a rushed pre-inauguration sentencing,’ his lawyers wrote.
Merchan responded by saying he would press ahead with sentencing and that their arguments were mostly ‘a repetition of the arguments he has raised numerous times in the past.’
Trump spokesperson Steven Cheung said: Today, President Trump’s legal team moved to stop the unlawful sentencing in the Manhattan D.A.’s Witch Hunt.
‘The Supreme Court’s historic decision on Immunity, the state constitution of New York, and other established legal precedent mandate that this meritless hoax be immediately dismissed.’