Trump’s Lawyers Rebuff DA’s Idea for Upholding His Hush Money Conviction, Calling It ‘Absurd’

NEW YORK, NEW YORK – MAY 21: Former U.S. President Donald Trump returns after a break during his hush money trial at Manhattan Criminal Court on May 21, 2024 in New York City. The defense has rested their case in former President Trump’s hush money trial in which he declined to testify in. Judge Juan Merchan says to expect summations and closing arguments in the criminal trial next week. Former U.S. President Trump faces 34 felony counts of falsifying business records in the first of his criminal cases to go to trial. (Photo by Michael M. Santiago/Getty Images)

NEW YORK (AP) — President-elect Donald Trump’s lawyers are again urging a judge to throw out his hush money conviction. In a court filing Friday, they balked at the prosecution’s “absurd” idea for preserving the verdict by treating the case the way some courts do when a defendant dies before sentencing. The Manhattan district attorney’s office is asking Judge Juan M. Merchan to “pretend as if one of the assassination attempts against President Trump had been successful,” Trump’s lawyers wrote in a blistering 23-page response. In court papers made public Tuesday, District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s office proposed an array of options for keeping the historic conviction on the books after Trump’s lawyers filed paperwork earlier this month asking for the case to be dismissed.