Lawyers for President-elect Donald Trump filed a legal motion on Monday in an effort to delay his upcoming sentencing. The move comes as Trump faces the prospect of becoming the first convicted felon to serve as president of the United States.
Legal expert Norm Eisen dismissed the arguments made in the filing as “nonsense” in an X (Formerly Twitter) post. The legal motion, “notice of automatic stay,” was submitted three days after New York Supreme Court Justice Juan Merchan upheld Trump’s conviction on 34 counts of falsifying business records. The charges stem from a $130,000 hush-money payment made to pornstar Stormy Daniels shortly before Trump’s 2016 election victory. Justice Merchan denied Trump’s request to overturn the May jury verdict and scheduled his sentencing for January 10.
Trump’s legal team, led by Todd Blanche and Emil Bove—both of whom have been nominated for senior positions in the Department of Justice—argued that the case should be paused based on a US Supreme Court ruling last summer. That ruling provided presidents with broad immunity for “official acts” undertaken in their capacity as president.
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Legal analysts quickly dismissed the filing’s claims
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Legal analysts quickly dismissed the filing’s claims
{{/usCountry}}Norm Eisen, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution, criticized, “I call BS. Presidential immunity does not apply here because the case pertains to events that took place before Trump was first elected president.”
Eisen further refuted Trump’s claim that he should be protected by “sitting-president immunity,” pointing out that Trump has not held the office since January 2021. “His claim that sitting-president immunity extends into the transitional period while he is 'president-elect' is nonsense. There's no such doctrine in American law. He's making this up,” Eisen added.
“Trump argues that 'further criminal proceedings are automatically stayed by operation of federal constitutional law.' Wrong again! There is no automatic stay. He's making this shit up as he goes along,” Eisen further highlighted.
“Hasn't Trump delayed accountability long enough? You know if he gets this stay, his sentencing will never occur. I strongly oppose a stay—and so does the interest of justice.”
Blanche and Bove demanded that Justice Merchan respond by 2:00 pm on Monday to indicate whether the January 10 sentencing would proceed.