Court rejects Trump's request to delay sentencing in document tampering case

The Court of Appeals of New York did not satisfy the lawsuit with the request of the President-elect of the United States Donald Trump to delay his sentencing in the case of falsification of financial documents of the Trump Organization in the payment to ex-porn actress Stormy Daniels. This was reported by ABC News on January 9.

It is specified that the sentencing remains scheduled for January 10.

The Manhattan District Attorney's Office concluded in a statement that the concept of immunity for the president-elect, which Trump relies on in his request as an argument, is completely baseless. Only a sitting head of state has such immunity.

"A president-elect is by definition not yet a head of state. Therefore, the president-elect does not perform any function <...> that would be burdened by ordinary criminal proceedings," prosecutors pointed out.

They added that Trump has systematically shown disrespect for the justice system.

Verdict in anti-Trump case to be announced before inauguration. What you need to know

Earlier, on January 8, the US president-elect filed a lawsuit for a stay of sentencing with the Supreme Court. The document also includes a request for a stay of proceedings in the document forgery case, called a witch hunt by the Manhattan district attorney's office.

The same day, The Washington Post reported that the court temporarily blocked the release of a report summarizing special prosecutor Jack Smith's investigations into Trump.

Trump on Jan. 3 called the judge's decision to schedule sentencing for Jan. 10 a farce. The politician said the ruling violated the U.S. Constitution and the statute of limitations.

Before that, on December 4, the American leader-elect urged a New York court to dismiss his case related to Daniels. As an argument, Trump referred to the decision of the current US President Joe Biden to pardon his son Hunter.

According to the prosecution's version, Trump became intimate with porn actress Stormy Daniels in 2006, and in 2016 his lawyer Michael Cohen paid $130 thousand in exchange for a nondisclosure agreement. After his election to the presidency, Trump reimbursed Cohen's financial spending by disguising the payments as legal fees. The checks totaled $420,000.

In May, a jury found Trump guilty in the case of forgery of financial documents. The President-elect himself said after the meeting that it was nothing more than falsification, behind which is the current head of state Joe Biden, who wants in this way to get rid of the main rival in the now past elections. Later, Trump called the jury's decision on the first case a scam and pointed out that now every American is at risk of criminal prosecution.