Trump cites Hunter Biden pardon in latest legal attempt to throw out hush money conviction
Former US President and Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump attends his criminal trial at Manhattan Criminal Court in New York City
(CNN) — Defense lawyers for President-elect Donald Trump are using President Joe Biden’s pardon of his son Hunter to argue that Trump’s conviction in his Manhattan hush money case should be dismissed.
“Yesterday in issuing a 10 year pardon to Hunter Biden that covers any and all crimes whether charged or uncharged, President Biden asserted that his son was ‘selectively, and unfairly prosecuted’ and ‘treated differently,’” Trump lawyers wrote in a motion filed Monday.
Trump’s lawyers – Todd Blanche and Emil Bove – whom he has picked for top Justice Department posts in his new administration – argue these comments amount to a condemnation of Biden’s own Justice Department and that New York District Attorney Alvin Bragg has engaged in the same kind of “political theater.”
Bragg’s office successfully prosecuted Trump earlier this year for falsifying business records related to hush money payments made to adult film star Stormy Daniels in 2016. Judge Juan Merchan indefinitely postponed Trump’s sentencing in the case after Trump won reelection. Trump’s lawyers also want the conviction dismissed, but the DA’s office says it will oppose any effort to toss the case.
In addition to the pardon argument, Trump’s attorneys also told the judge that his case should be dismissed given his reelection last month.
“President Trump’s status as President-elect and the soon-to-be sitting President is a ‘legal impediment’ to further criminal proceedings based on the Presidential immunity doctrine (established by the Supreme Court last summer) and the Supremacy Clause,” they wrote.
They pointed to special counsel Jack Smith’s decision to end the two federal criminal cases he had brought against Trump last year – a decision Smith said was rooted in longstanding Justice Department policy barring the department from criminally pursuing a sitting president.
“Even (Smith) has been forced to concede, by DOJ’s Office of Legal Counsel (‘OLC’ ), that President Trump’s status as President-elect mandates dismissal of the unjust prosecutions pending against him,” they wrote.
Last month, Bragg’s office acknowledged to the court in New York that Trump is not likely to be sentenced “until after the end of Defendant’s upcoming presidential term,” but argued that Trump’s felony conviction should stand.
A source close to the district attorney’s office said it is open to a four year pause of the case.
“No current law establishes that a president’s temporary immunity from prosecution requires dismissal of a post-trial criminal proceeding that was initiated at a time when the defendant was not immune from criminal prosecution and that is based on official conduct for which the defendant is also not immune,” the district attorney’s office wrote.
This story has been updated with additional details.
CNN’s Devan Cole contributed to this report.
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