Trump seeks to block sentencing in New York for hush money

Lawyers of the president-elect Donald Trump tried to block his scheduled sentencing later this week in a New York criminal quieter money case, according to the new court motion.

Trump’s lawyers told Manhattan Supreme Court Justice Juan Mercan in a motion released Monday that they will appeal his ruling denying their efforts to drop the criminal case.

The motion argues that the appeal should automatically stay the sentencing, which is scheduled for Friday, and that if Merchan disagrees, he should nevertheless grant Trump an immediate stay of the process pending the outcome of the appeal. This appeal may take several months to be processed.

Trump was convicted of 34 counts of falsifying commercial documents in May related to paying hush money to a porn star in 2016 Stormy Daniels shortly before the presidential elections of the same year.

Merchan said last week that he was not inclined to sentence Trump to prison in the case, and suggested that he would impose a sentence that does not include probation or a fine.

That same day, Merchan rejected arguments that he should recuse himself from the case in light of a U.S. Supreme Court ruling that says presidents have presumptive immunity from criminal prosecution for official acts while serving in the White House, as well as because of the Constitution’s Supremacy Clause .

In a statement Monday, Trump spokesman Stephen Cheng said, “Today, President Trump’s legal team took action to end the wrongful conviction in the Manhattan District Attorney’s Witch Hunt.”

“The Supreme Court’s historic ruling on untouchability, the New York state constitution and other legal precedents mandate the immediate rejection of this baseless hoax,” Cheng said.

Trump is scheduled to be sworn in as president for a second consecutive term at the White House on January 20.