Trump’s Lawyers Cite Hunter Biden Pardon in N.Y. Hush Money Dismissal Bid

The Washington Post / Shayna Jacobs

13:22 JST, December 4, 2024

NEW YORK – President-elect Donald Trump’s felony conviction for falsifying business documents is tainted by the same corruption in the justice system that President Joe Biden decried when he announced his son’s pardon, Trump’s attorneys wrote in a document released Tuesday.

The attorneys pointed to comments by Biden in defending his pardon of his son Hunter, in which he alleged the younger Biden was targeted by the president’s detractors for political payback. Biden said in a statement that his son was “selectively, and unfairly, prosecuted” and “treated differently” than most.

Trump’s lawyers Todd Blanche and Emil Bove wrote in their court filing that the same corruption Biden described extended to the state court case handled by New York Supreme Court Justice Juan Merchan. Merchan has rejected past claims by Trump lawyers that the case was tainted by political bias.

Blanche and Bove wrote that like Biden’s assessment of the Justice Department’s treatment of his son, “this case would never have been brought were it not for President Trump’s political views, the transformative national movement established under his leadership, and the political threat that he poses to entrenched, corrupt politicians in Washington, D.C. and beyond.”

Biden signed a pardon Sunday for Hunter Biden, who was found guilty of gun-related charges in Delaware and pleaded guilty to tax evasion in California.

The president said in prepared remarks that Hunter “was singled out only because he is my son – and that is wrong,” a remark that echoed a chorus of complaints from Trump and his allies in recent years as he fought a cascade of criminal and civil investigations.

Trump’s criminal case in New York, his lawyers said, must be thrown out under federal law because Trump is entitled to protection from legal issues that may interfere with his upcoming term.

The Justice Department that Biden criticized “coordinated and oversaw the politically-motivated, election-interference witch hunts targeting President Trump,” Blanche and Bove wrote in the 72-page motion.

Trump’s attorneys wrote that Merchan had to ensure that their client, who has not been sentenced, would be released from the criminal case that stems from a $130,000 hush money payment to adult-film actress Stormy Daniels ahead of the 2016 election.

A jury in May found Trump guilty on 34 felony counts. Merchan must decide whether to hand down a punishment before Trump begins his term Jan. 20, after his term or never.

Blanche and Bove argued that Trump’s transition to the presidency is a legally protected process and cannot be interrupted under federal law. He also cannot face charges while he’s in office under precedent recently solidified by a Supreme Court decision, they said.

Trump, who served as president from 2017 to 2021, won a second term in the Nov. 5 election. He frequently announces appointments and nominations and routinely meets with officials and prospects for his new administration from his Mar-a-Lago estate and private club in Palm Beach, Florida.

Attorneys for Trump have tried repeatedly to get the Manhattan criminal court case thrown out. The Supreme Court issued a presidential immunity ruling in July that broadly defined official conduct that protects a president.

Blanche and Bove argued in the latest filing submitted Monday that a sitting president cannot be subjected to state investigations or court proceedings. In a previous motion and again in the latest one, the defense argued that the case had to be dismissed because Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s office improperly built it around evidence and testimony stemming from Trump’s official presidential conduct.

Prosecutors have said that the case, in which a jury found Trump guilty on all charges, did not involve presidential duties and that it would have been strong even without the inclusion of some evidence generated during Trump’s first year in the White House.

Bragg and his team have said there is no basis to throw out Trump’s state court case and that presidents are not immune from state court proceedings. The district attorney acknowledged in a recent letter to Merchan that it might make sense to sentence Trump after his term concludes.

He faces up to four years in prison under New York law.

Trump’s attorneys said that prospect is also nonviable because “it would be egregious and unlawful for this Court to hold the prospect of a 2029 sentencing over President Trump’s head while he continues his service to this Country.”

The hush money case was one of four indictments against Trump. He also faced charges in Georgia, Florida and D.C.

Since he won the presidential election, both of Trump’s federal cases were withdrawn. Special counsel Jack Smith wound down the pending matters, citing a Justice Department policy that prevents sitting presidents from facing prosecution.

A team led by Smith had obtained two indictments against Trump. In Florida, Trump was charged for allegedly hoarding classified records at his Palm Beach home and private club and blocking efforts by the government to regain custody of them. Trump-appointed Judge Aileen M. Cannon dismissed that matter in a highly controversial decision.

Smith is appealing her ruling but recently dropped Trump from that case — keeping his two co-defendants — because Justice Department policy prohibits prosecuting a sitting president.

A D.C. judge last week separately dismissed Smith’s indictment of Trump for allegedly trying to interfere with the results of the 2020 election. Smith’s motion to dismiss said he stood by the facts of the indictment, but concluded he could not proceed with the federal prosecution now that Trump had been elected again.

A state court indictment is still pending against Trump and a number of his allies in Georgia, stemming from alleged efforts to overturn election results from 2020 in that state. That case is frozen pending an appeal of a ruling related to alleged prosecutorial misconduct.