President-elect Trump’s attorneys on Friday condemned Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s (D) suggested alternatives to dismissing Trump’s hush money criminal conviction, going as far to call one of them “unhinged” and “absurd.”
It remains unclear if New York Judge Juan Merchan will consider the new filing, as he previously wrote he would only accept one written brief from each side. It is up to the judge now to determine how to proceed in the case.
With his return to the White House imminent, Trump has argued the court is compelled to wipe the jury’s verdict finding him guilty of 34 felonies and dismiss the case in its entirety. Bragg pushed back in a filing earlier this week, instead suggesting the judge could freeze the case or make other accommodations that would keep the jury’s guilty verdict intact.
"DA Bragg’s interest in maintaining the jury’s verdicts as a notch in whatever belt he plans to wear to campaign events in 2025 is not a basis for interfering with the Executive Branch,” Trump attorneys Todd Blanche and Emil Bove replied on Friday, referencing that Bragg is up for re-election next year.
The attorneys, whom Trump has nominated to senior Justice Department roles in his next administration, in particular condemned Bragg’s alternative suggestion that the judge could treat the case as if Trump had passed away.
In that scenario, the court would terminate the proceedings after updating the case file to note the verdict removed the presumption of innocence, Trump was never sentenced and that his conviction was neither affirmed nor reversed on appeal.
Blanche and Bove called the district attorney’s office’s (DANY) proposal “unhinged,” “absurd” and a “Dark Dream Scenario.”
“As a further illustration of DA Bragg’s desperation to avoid legally mandated dismissal, DANY proposes that the Court pretend as if one of the assassination attempts against President Trump had been successful,” they wrote.
Trump’s lawyers also invoked Sen. John Fetterman’s (D-Pa.) suggestion this week that Trump deserves a pardon and the case was “weaponizing the judiciary,” saying the Democratic senator’s summary “is apt.”
The New York jury convicted Trump this spring on 34 counts of falsifying business records stemming from a 2016 hush money payment to adult film star Stormy Daniels to stay quiet about an alleged affair with Trump, which he denies, during his campaign. Prosecutors accused Trump of illegally concealing the payment with the intent to unlawfully influence that year’s election.
Following the election, Trump’s legal team has looked to toss the case and his three other criminal indictments that hadn’t reached trial, insisting his status as president-elect provides him the same protections as a sitting president against criminal prosecution.
Special Counsel Jack Smith agreed to dismiss his two indictments of Trump on election interference and documents charges, and Trump has meanwhile asked courts in Georgia to do the same in his state election interference case.
