A federal court in New York on Friday, in a procedural notice, flagged a deficiency in former President Donald Trump’s latest legal filing in which his attorneys sought to move his state criminal case to federal court ahead of sentencing next month.
Trump’s attorneys argued in a filing on Thursday that if kept in state court, the case could result in Trump’s incarceration before the 2024 presidential election. They asked the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York to intervene ahead of sentencing in September.
The Republican presidential candidate’s legal team contends that the prosecution is unconstitutional and conflicts with a recent U.S. Supreme Court ruling on presidential immunity, which they argue should protect Trump from being tried for actions taken while in office.
The Supreme Court’s July ruling reaffirmed that U.S. presidents have absolute immunity from prosecution for official acts.
However, on Friday, shortly after the filing, the court issued a notice to Trump’s attorneys indicating that the pleading was deficient.
The court instructed Trump’s attorneys to re-file the pleading correctly, using the appropriate event type and attaching the necessary documents, including the court’s order granting permission to file.
Steven Cheung, a communications director for the Trump campaign, issued a statement on Friday, saying that the judge’s notice is a procedural move, not a ruling.
“In a standard procedural move, today, the clerk’s office asked President Trump’s legal team to file in a specific format and we are working with them to make sure it is properly filed on the electronic system,” Cheung said in a statement to media outlets.
In May, Trump was convicted on 34 counts of falsifying business records. He pleaded not guilty to all counts and maintains that the case against him is part of a politically motivated effort to undermine his 2024 presidential election bid.
Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg brought the case against Trump, accusing him of trying to conceal payments of $130,000 as part of a non-disclosure agreement to Stephanie Clifford, an adult film actress known as Stormy Daniels. The payments were made during his 2016 campaign, which was related to an alleged affair. Trump has denied the affair occurred.
Sentencing in the case is currently set for Sept. 18, just seven weeks before Election Day.
Trump’s legal team has also sought to delay the sentencing.
In asking the federal court to intervene, Trump’s attorneys said Thursday that Justice Juan Merchan, the presiding judge, imposed an unwarranted and unconstitutional gag order on the presidential candidate, preventing his “ability to respond to political attacks by criticizing the New York County proceedings.”
They said that the New York court’s procedures conflict with the Supreme Court’s guidance on presidential immunity and that the case process is damaging to the presidency and the government.
“The impending election cannot be redone,” Trump’s attorneys wrote. “The currently unaddressed harm to the Presidency resulting from this improper prosecution will adversely impact the operations of the federal government for generations.”
This is the second time Trump’s attorneys have sought to move the case to federal court. Last year, a judge rejected their first attempt, which was argued on the grounds that the indictment involved official acts.
Now, the Republican presidential candidate’s attorneys argue that circumstances have changed. They contend that state prosecutors misled the court by saying earlier that the trial wouldn’t involve Trump’s official duties or actions as president.
Trump’s attorneys also asked Justice Merchan to dismiss the guilty verdict following the Supreme Court’s decision on immunity. They argued that some of the evidence presented at trial was protected official acts that shouldn’t have been shown to the jury.
Their Thursday filing indicates their belief that Justice Merchan “plans to unlawfully deny the presidential immunity motion,” and they told the federal court that the impact of sentencing Trump ahead of the national election “cannot be ignored” in light of this.
Justice Merchan is expected to soon rule on a separate request from Trump’s attorneys to postpone his sentencing until after the Nov. 5 election.
The same judge will also decide in September whether or not to overturn the verdict and dismiss the case against Trump in the wake of the Supreme Court’s decision regarding immunity.
