NEW YORK (AP) — Former President Donald Trump’s lawyers have asked the New York judge who presided over his hush money trial to set aside his conviction and delay his sentencing, scheduled for next week.
The letter to Judge Juan M. Merchan cited the U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling earlier Monday on presidential immunity and asked the judge to delay Trump’s sentencing while he weighs the high court’s decision and how it could influence the New York case, according to the letter obtained by The Associated Press.
The lawyers argue that the Supreme Court’s decision confirmed a position the defense raised earlier in the case that prosecutors should have been precluded from introducing some evidence they said constituted official presidential acts, according to the letter.
In prior court filings, Trump contended he is immune from prosecution for conduct alleged to involve official acts during his tenure in office. His lawyers did not raise that as a defense in the hush money case, but they argued that some evidence — including Trump’s social media posts about former lawyer Michael Cohen — comes from his time as president and should have been excluded from the trial because of immunity protections.
The Manhattan district attorney’s office declined to comment Monday night.
The Supreme Court on Monday ruled for the first time that former presidents have broad immunity from prosecution, extending the delay in the Washington criminal case against the Republican ex-president on charges he plotted to overturn his 2020 election loss.
Trump was convicted in New York of 34 counts of falsifying business records, arising from what prosecutors said was an attempt to cover up a hush money payment to a porn actor just before the 2016 presidential election. He is scheduled to be sentenced in the hush money case on July 11.
Merchan instituted a policy in the run-up to the trial requiring both sides to send him a one-page letter summarizing their arguments before making longer court filings. He said he did that to better manage the docket, so he was not inundated with voluminous paperwork.
In denying Trump’s bid to move the trial from New York state court to federal court last year, a federal judge found that the allegations at the center of the case pertained to Trump’s personal life and do not “reflect in any way the color of the President’s official duties.”
“The evidence overwhelmingly suggests that the matter was a purely a personal item of the President — a cover-up of an embarrassing event,” U.S. District Judge Alvin K. Hellerstein wrote in the ruling.
Sisak contributed from Fort Pierce, Florida.
FILE - Former President Donald Trump speaks during a news conference at Trump Tower, May 31, 2024, in New York. Trump's lawyers have sent a letter to the Manhattan judge in his hush money criminal case seeking permission to file a motion to set aside the verdict. The letter to Judge Juan M. Merchan cited the U.S. Supreme Court's ruling on July 1 and asked the judge to delay Trump's sentencing while he weighs the high court's decision and how it could influence the New York case. (AP Photo/Julia Nikhinson, File)
KINGSTON, Jamaica (AP) — Hurricane Beryl was roaring by Jamaica Wednesday, bringing fierce winds and heavy rain after the powerful Category 4 storm earlier killed at least seven people and caused significant damage in the southeast Caribbean.
The U.S. National Hurricane Center said Beryl's eyewall was “brushing the south coast of Jamaica.”
Wind-whipped rain pounded the island for hours as residents heeded authorities' call to shelter until the storm had passed. Power was knocked out in much of the capital.
Prime Minister Andrew Holness said on Wednesday afternoon that nearly 500 people were placed in shelters.
By evening, he said that Jamaica has not seen the “worst of what could possibly happen.”
“We can do as much as we can do, as humanly possible, and we leave the rest in the hands of God,” Holness said.
Several roadways in the country’s interior settlements were impacted by fallen trees and utility poles, while some communities in the northern section were without electricity, according to the government’s information service.
Kingston resident Pauline Lynch said that she had stockpiled food and water in anticipation of the storm’s arrival. With wind already driving rain, Lynch said, “I have no control over what is coming so I just have to pray that all people of Jamaica is safe and we don’t suffer no deaths, no loss.”
By midday, winds already howled in the capital, turning the sea into churning whitecaps as Beryl's eye scraped by the island's southern coast.
“We are very concerned about a wide variety of life threatening impacts in Jamaica,” including storm surge, high winds and flash flooding, said Jon Porter, chief meteorologist at AccuWeather.
Porter called Beryl “the strongest and most dangerous hurricane threat that Jamaica has faced, probably, in decades.”
A hurricane warning was in effect for Jamaica, Grand Cayman, Little Cayman and Cayman Brac, and the coast of the Yucatan Peninsula of Mexico from Puerto Costa Maya to Cancun. Beryl was forecast to weaken slightly over the next day or two, but still be at or near major-hurricane strength when it passes near the Cayman Islands on Thursday and into Mexico's Yucatan Peninsula late Thursday or Friday, according to the U.S. National Hurricane Center.
Jamaica was under a state of emergency as the island was declared a disaster zone hours before the impact of Beryl. Holness said that the disaster zone declaration will remain for the next seven days.
An evacuation order was in place for communities across Jamaica that are prone to flooding and landslides. Holness urged Jamaicans to move away from low-lying areas.
Mexico’s Caribbean coast, meanwhile was preparing for Beryl.
The head of Mexico’s civil defense agency said that Beryl is expected to make a rare double strike on Mexico. Laura Velázquez said the hurricane is expected to make landfall along a relatively unpopulated stretch of the Caribbean coast between Tulum and the inland town of Felipe Carrillo Puerto. Because the coast there is largely made up of lagoons and mangroves, there are few resorts or hotels in the area south of Tulum.
On Wednesday, Mexican government officials moved sea turtle eggs off Cancun beaches in an attempt to protect them from storm surge.
The hurricane is expected to weaken to a tropical storm as it crosses the Yucatan peninsula and reemerge over the weekend at storm strength into the Gulf of Mexico. Velázquez said that Beryl is then expected to hit Mexican territory a second time in the Gulf coast states of Veracruz or Tamaulipas, near the Texas border.
Late Monday, Beryl became the earliest storm to develop into a Category 5 hurricane in the Atlantic and peaked at winds of 165 mph (270 kph) Tuesday before weakening to a still-destructive Category 4. Late Wednesday night, the storm's center was about 560 miles (905 kilometers) east-southeast of Tulum, Mexico. It had maximum sustained winds of 130 mph (215 kph) and was moving west-northwest at 21 mph (32 kph). Hurricane strength winds extended 45 miles from the center.
In Miami, hurricane center director Michael Brennan in an online briefing said people on the island should plan to stay sheltered throughout the day Wednesday with conditions only beginning to improve overnight.
Jamaica’s southern coast, where Kingston is located, was expected to bear the brunt of Beryl with coastal water levels rising to 6 or 9 feet (1.8 to 2.7 meters) above normal tide levels in some area.
Heavy rains of 4 to 8 inches, with up to a foot in isolated areas, threatened flash flooding and mudslides on the mountainous island, he said.
As Beryl barreled through the Caribbean Sea, rescue crews in southeastern islands fanned out to determine the extent of the damage the hurricane inflicted on Carriacou, an island in Grenada.
Michelle Forbes, the St. Vincent and Grenadines director of the National Emergency Management Organization, said that about 95% of homes in Mayreau and Union Island have been damaged by Hurricane Beryl.
Three people were reported killed in Grenada and Carriacou and another in St. Vincent and the Grenadines, officials said. Three other deaths were reported in northern Venezuela, where five people are missing, officials said. About 25,000 people in that area also were affected by heavy rainfall from Beryl.
One fatality in Grenada occurred after a tree fell on a house, Kerryne James, the environment minister, told The Associated Press.
Grenada's Prime Minister Dickon Mitchell said Tuesday there was no power, roads are impassable and the possible rise of the death toll “remains a grim reality.”
St. Vincent and the Grenadines Prime Minister Ralph Gonsalves has promised to rebuild the archipelago.
The last strong hurricane to hit the southeast Caribbean was Hurricane Ivan 20 years ago, which killed dozens of people in Grenada.
Associated Press writers Mark Stevenson in Mexico City, Coral Murphy Marcos in San Juan, Puerto Rico and Lucanus Ollivierre in Kingstown, St. Vincent and Grenadines contributed to this report.
Workers remove an advertisement from a billboard for protection ahead of Hurricane Beryl's expected arrival, in Playa del Carmen, Mexico, Wednesday, July 3, 2024. (AP Photo/Fernando Llano)
State employees evacuate turtle eggs from the beach to protect them from the incoming Hurricane Beryl, in Cancun, Mexico, Wednesday, July 3, 2024. (AP Photo/Fernando Llano)
People lounge on the beach as the sun sets ahead of Hurricane Beryl's expected arrival, in Playa del Carmen, Mexico, Wednesday, July 3, 2024. (AP Photo/Fernando Llano)
A Mexican soldier stands guard on a beach ahead of Hurricane Beryl's expected arrival, in Cancun, Mexico, Wednesday, July 3, 2024. (AP Photo/Fernando Llano)
Furniture store employees board up windows for protection ahead of Hurricane Beryl's expected arrival, in Playa del Carmen, Mexico, Wednesday, July 3, 2024. (AP Photo/Fernando Llano)
Workers remove an advertisement from a billboard for protection ahead of Hurricane Beryl's expected arrival, in Playa del Carmen, Mexico, Wednesday, July 3, 2024. (AP Photo/Fernando Llano)
Furniture store employees board up windows for protection ahead of Hurricane Beryl's expected arrival, in Playa del Carmen, Mexico, Wednesday, July 3, 2024. (AP Photo/Fernando Llano)
Tourists swim in the ocean ahead of Hurricane Beryl's expected arrival in Cancun, Mexico, Wednesday, July 3, 2024. (AP Photo/Fernando Llano)
This image provided by NASA shows Hurricane Beryl from the International Space Station on Sunday, July 1, 2024. Beryl was roaring toward Jamaica on Wednesday, July 3, with islanders scrambling to make preparations after the powerful Category 4 storm earlier killed at least six people and caused significant damage in the southeast Caribbean. (NASA via AP)
A man covers the windows of a building to protect it from the incoming Hurricane Beryl in Kingston, Jamaica, Tuesday, July 2, 2024. (AP Photo/Collin Reid)
Workers chops a tree uprooted by Hurricane Beryl in St. James, Barbados, Tuesday, July 2, 2024. (AP Photo/Ricardo Mazalan)
Fishermen push a boat damaged by Hurricane Beryl at the Bridgetown fisheries, Barbados, Tuesday, July 2, 2024. (AP Photo/Ricardo Mazalan)
Palm trees wilt after being uprooted by Hurricane Beryl in St. Patrick, Grenada, Tuesday, July 2, 2024. (AP Photo/Haron Forteau)
Roofs of houses lie damaged by Hurricane Beryl in St. Patrick, Grenada, Tuesday, July 2, 2024. (AP Photo/Haron Forteau)
Evacuees from Union Island arrive in Kingstown, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, Tuesday, July 2, 2024. The island, in the Grenadines archipelago, was hit by Hurricane Beryl. (AP Photo/Lucanus Ollivierre)
Fishing boats lie in the middle of the street for protection from Hurricane Beryl in Kingston, Jamaica, Tuesday, July 2, 2024. (AP Photo/Collin Reid)
Workers dismantle an advertisement board to protect it from Hurricane Beryl in Kingston, Jamaica, Tuesday, July 2, 2024. (AP Photo/Collin Reid)
Fishermen play dominoes after pulling their boats out of the water to protect them from Hurricane Beryl in Kingston, Jamaica, Tuesday, July 2, 2024. (AP Photo/Collin Reid)
