As prosecutors push to preserve President-elect Donald Trump’s historic New York conviction, his lawyers urged a judge Wednesday to ignore them and scrap the case before he takes office in January.
Echoing their stance since Trump's win, his lawyers argued in a letter that continuing with the case will interfere with the president-elect's preparations for returning to the White House and impede his ability to run the country.
The lawyers, Todd Blanche and Emil Bove, said voters' decision to return Trump to office should take precedence over the opinion of prosecutors, known in court-speak as the "People of the State of New York."
“The Nation’s People issued a mandate that supersedes the motivations of (the district attorney’s) ‘People,’” Blanche and Bove wrote to Judge Juan M. Merchan. “This case must immediately be dismissed.”
Otherwise, they warned, protracted appeals would overlap with Trump’s second term.
Trump, a Republican, has tapped Blanche and Bove for high-ranking Justice Department jobs.
Trump was convicted in May of falsifying business records to cover up a scheme to influence the 2016 election by paying to squelch a story of extramarital sex. Trump denies the allegations.rt.