Former President Donald Trump's legal team will continue pushing for his New York business records case to be moved to federal court, as it is "absurd" that important decisions are being made based on a political timeline, Will Scharf, one of his attorneys, told Newsmax.
"There are very important federal defenses and federal interests that are implicated by that New York case and we think the appropriate venue is a federal court," Scharf told Wednesday's "Wake Up America." "We're going to be examining our options in the next day or two. We are going to continue pushing for that case to be in a federal venue where we believe it belongs."
U.S. District Judge Alvin Hellerstein on Tuesday denied Trump's lawyers permission to file paperwork to ask the U.S. District Court in Manhattan to take control of the case, saying the burden of proof required to move the case had not been met.
If permission had been given to move the case, that would have affected not only the Sept. 18 sentencing date for Trump, who a jury found guilty on 34 felony counts this summer but a ruling set for Sept. 16 to determine if the Supreme Court's action on presidential immunity would affect the proceedings.
"We believe, as I think most Americans believe, that this entire campaign of lawfare is designed to achieve the purpose of election interference," Scharf said. "There's no reason at all why President Trump should be in courtrooms, should be dealing with these issues, which are in no way, shape, or form time critical in the lead up to one of the most important presidential elections in our nation's history.
"We're going to continue seeking to vindicate President Trump's rights at every turn, and we're going to keep on fighting."
Meanwhile, Manhattan Judge Juan Merchan's decision on the immunity argument comes just two days before Trump is to be sentenced, so Scharf said the appeal on that matter will be filed quickly and could delay the sentencing proceedings.
"Typically on issues of immunity, there are issues that are immediately appealable, and they typically result in a stay of all other proceedings while those issues are hashed out by the appellate courts," he said. "That's the process that we've seen play out for example, in Washington, D.C. That process went all the way up to the U.S. Supreme Court."
Merchan, however, "has created an insane situation" by not moving Trump's sentencing date, Scharf said.
"But by scheduling sentencing less than two days after we're set to receive this opinion on presidential immunity, we've set up an issue where we are forced to immediately appeal within 36 hours and seek stays and seek relief from higher courts if he does rule against us: That's not fair," Scharf said. "That's not a reasonable way to conduct important litigation of this type."
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