NY appeals court rejects Trump’s emergency request to delay Friday hush money sentencing

By Kara Scannell, Jeremy Herb, Lauren del Valle and Paula Reid, CNN

(CNN) — A New York appeals court judge has rejected Donald Trump’s request to postpone his Friday sentencing in the hush money case.

Associate Justice Ellen Gesmer swiftly denied Trump’s request following a brief hearing on the matter Tuesday afternoon.

Trump on Tuesday asked to stay the proceedings in the hush money case – including his sentencing scheduled for Friday – while he appeals his conviction, after Judge Juan Merchan, the trial judge, rejected his demand to stop the sentencing.

Trump’s attorney Todd Blanche – the president-elect’s pick to be deputy attorney general in his new administration – argued Tuesday to the New York Appellate Division, First Department, that it should stop Trump’s sentencing, acknowledging the situation was unprecedented.

Blanche said the Supreme Court’s July decision on presidential immunity offers Trump constitutional protection. Though Merchan had denied two arguments to vacate Trump’s conviction, Blanche argued that either of those arguments should allow them a stay of proceedings while the appeal gets litigated.

Gesmer, who presided over the hearing, asked Blanche whether there’s any precedent for his request that presidential immunity could extend to a president-elect.

“There has never been a case like this before, so no,” Blanche responded.

Manhattan District Attorney’s Office Chief of Appeals Steven Wu argued Trump’s lawyers have not put forward any argument that a one-hour sentencing hearing would disrupt Trump’s responsibilities as president-elect.

“Now is the best time for this to happen here,” Wu said. He acknowledged the DA’s office has agreed with Trump’s legal team that it will be much more difficult to have a sitting president called in for sentencing on a state matter.

“The sentencing has to happen at some point, right?” Wu said.

Blanche said sentencing is an “extraordinary” imposition on Trump, adding a criminal sentencing is “a big deal” in someone’s life even if it’s only going to take an hour. The judge cut him off and noted Merchan would have been happy to sentence Trump in July.

Trump is appealing his conviction on 34 counts of falsifying business records, arguing it should be tossed because of the Supreme Court’s presidential immunity ruling and because Trump is now president-elect.

Merchan has rejected both of those arguments, scheduling the sentencing for Friday and prompting Trump’s attorneys to go to the appeals court to try to halt the sentencing.

However, Merchan signaled he would not sentence Trump to any punishment.

Asked whether weight should be given to Merchan saying he wouldn’t impose any prison sentence, Blanche responded, “I don’t know how anybody could give any weight to that” since it’s hypothetical.

When Gesmer asked what presidential immunity arguments would offer Trump a stay pending appeal, Blanche said he’s basing the argument on sitting presidential immunity, as well as Merchan’s December decision addressing whether there were evidentiary issues at trial that involved presidential immunity. Those arguments should allow Trump a stay of proceedings while the appeals court decides whether Merchan was right, Blanche argued.

Blanche also argued that the court should consider actions by the Department of Justice to decline to prosecute Trump in his two federal cases after he was elected president. “There is no case law and that is true, but that doesn’t mean we can’t look at what has happened,” Blanche said.

Gesmer disagreed, saying she doesn’t find that analogy useful.

The judge also asked the prosecution whether there was any precedent that presidential immunity extended to the president-elect, a concept Merchan rejected.

“There is none whatsoever for that claim,” Wu said later, arguing that the theory of immunity for a president-elect interferes with the idea that there is only one sitting president at a time.

If the appeals court rules against Trump after Tuesday’s hearing, there are still other appeals avenues he could pursue to try to block Friday’s sentencing.

Trump was convicted in May on 34 counts of falsifying business records over payments to his then-lawyer Michael Cohen to reimburse a $130,000 hush money payment made to adult-film star Stormy Daniels to keep her from speaking out about an alleged affair before the 2016 election. (Trump has denied the affair.)

Trump is set to be sworn in as president in less than two weeks. If his lawyers are successful in halting the proceedings, the hush money case could linger for months while his attorneys pursue an appeal to toss out Trump’s conviction.

This story has been updated with additional developments.

CNN’s Nicki Brown contributed to this report.

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