Federal Court Denies Trump’s Request To Pause NY Lawfare Case

The U.S. Second Circuit Court of Appeals on Thursday denied a request from former President Donald Trump to pause his New York criminal prosecution brought by lawfare artist Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg.

The federal court ruling came after pro-Democrat Judge Juan Merchan, acting justice of the New York State Supreme Court, decided to delay Trump’s sentencing until after the 2024 election, prolonging the case. Merchan is now set to reevaluate the case on Nov. 12. He then plans to sentence Trump only two weeks later on Nov. 26, nearly six months after a jury found him guilty on 34 counts of falsifying business records earlier this year. The former president faces up to 136 years in prison for these counts.

Trump asked a federal district judge to move the case out of New York state courts and into the federal system, pointing to the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision granting Trump “at least presumptive immunity” for all “official acts.” The district court rejected the request on Sept. 3, and Trump ultimately asked the Second Circuit to block that decision.

On Sept. 9, Trump’s attorneys argued to the Second Circuit that such a motion for stay was “appropriate … in order to preserve President Trump’s right under [federal statute] to a fair and orderly litigation of the Presidential immunity defense in a federal forum.”

“President Trump’s ability to seek appellate review of the district court’s ruling would be irreparably harmed, in the absence of a stay, because Justice Merchant could move forward with sentencing and a ‘judgment of conviction,’ … before this appeal is resolved,” the letter asserts. “Furthermore, Justice Merchant’s current schedule does not allow adequate time for interlocutory appellate review of a Presidential immunity ruling he is likely to issue before this appeal is resolved … .”

Nonetheless, the Second Circuit denied Trump’s request for a stay on Thursday.

“In light of the state court’s adjournment of sentencing until November 26, 2024, it is hereby ORDERED that the motion for an emergency administrative stay is DENIED,” the federal three-judge panel wrote in the decision.

Bragg’s office last week called on the Second Circuit to “deny any stay pending appeal,” claiming the request from Trump was “legally unavailable” as well as “unnecessary in light of the state criminal court’s adjournment of the sentencing.”

Despite the immunity ruling from the Supreme Court, District Judge Alvin Hellerstein, nominated by Bill Clinton, argued in the Sept. 3 decision that the circumstances of Trump’s case had not changed, writing, “Nothing in the Supreme Court’s opinion affects my previous conclusion that the hush money payments were private, unofficial acts, outside the bounds of executive authority.”

Trump’s legal team also motioned for adjournment and argued evidence used by Bragg would have fallen under immunity, but Merchan denied the request earlier this year.

The New York trial has been rife with controversy and corruption since the beginning.

Merchan, for his part, apparently donated money to President Joe Biden’s 2020 campaign. As The Federalist’s John Daniel Davidson previously wrote, Merchan also “issued bizarre and plainly unconstitutional jury instructions on Wednesday, telling jurors they need not agree on what crime Trump allegedly committed to reach a unanimous guilty verdict.”

Trump and many others have called for Merchan to recuse himself after revelations that his daughter, Loren Merchan, is head of Democrat marketing firm Authentic Campaigns, boasting clientele like Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., the lead prosecutor of Trump in the first sham Senate impeachment trial, and Vice President Kamala Harris.

Further questions about Merchan’s motivations arose after he motioned to gag Trump, silencing him from being able to criticize prosecutors and court staffers involved in the case.

Bragg initially indicted Trump claiming he violated the Federal Election Campaign Act when Trump’s former attorney “Michael Cohen paid pornographic actress Stormy Daniels to keep quiet about an alleged affair,” as The Federalist’s Jordan Boyd previously reported. Despite nondisclosure agreements being legal (and at the very most potentially only reaching the level of a misdemeanor charge) Bragg, promised a political vendetta against Trump, filing felony charges. In this decision, as Boyd noted, Bragg went over the head of the Federal Election Commission and Department of Justice in their decision not to pursue the case.

Breccan F. Thies is an elections correspondent for The Federalist. He previously covered education and culture issues for the Washington Examiner and Breitbart News. He holds a degree from the University of Virginia and is a 2022 Claremont Institute Publius Fellow. You can follow him on X: @BreccanFThies.