President-elect Donald Trump has asked a New York court to throw out his hush money conviction before Friday’s scheduled sentencing.
It has been set for 10 January, just 10 days before the presidential inauguration.
Trump was found guilty in May of 34 counts of falsifying business records, relating to an alleged scheme to hide a hush money payment to adult actress Stormy Daniels in the last weeks of his first campaign in 2016.
Trump’s spokesperson has called the case “lawless” and a “witch hunt”.
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Lawyers for the 78-year-old have previously pushed to dismiss the verdict and throw out the case on presidential immunity grounds, due to his impending return to the White House.
Their request to a state appeals court represents a last-ditch effort by Trump to block a lower court ruling on Monday to proceed with the sentencing on Monday.
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In the ruling Judge Juan Merchan rejected a request from Trump’s lawyers to delay the sentencing while they appealed two of his previous rulings upholding the Manhattan jury’s guilty verdict on 34 felony counts of falsifying records in May.
Scheduling Trump’s sentencing for Friday, Judge Merchan said he was not inclined to send Trump to jail.
He said a sentence of unconditional discharge, which essentially puts a judgment of guilt on his record without a fine or probation, would be the most practical approach ahead of Trump’s inauguration.
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On Monday Trump’s lawyers cited both presidential immunity and the demands of the impending inauguration, saying Judge Merchan’s intention not to penalise the president-elect was “of no moment”.
“Presidential immunity violations cannot be ignored in favour of a rushed pre-inauguration sentencing,” the lawyers said in a court filing.
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Trump has always denied a sexual encounter with Daniels, but was convicted of falsifying business records over a $130,000 (£102,000) payment to allegedly keep her from publicising claims in the lead-up to the 2016 election.
The case made Trump the first US president to be charged with and convicted of a crime.
His lawyers have made two unsuccessful attempts to have the case dismissed, which they now say they plan to appeal.
