Trump asks judge to delay New York criminal trial until Supreme Court rules on presidential immunity

Former President Donald Trump’s attorneys are asking the judge presiding over his impending criminal trial in New York to delay the trial until after the U.S. Supreme Court issues its ruling on the scope of presidential immunity.

If granted, the11th-hour long-shot bid filed on Thursday would delay the trial, which is scheduled to start March 25, by several weeks, if not months.

Trump is charged with 34 counts of falsifying business records tied to a hush-money payment to an adult film star toward the end of his 2016 campaign. While actress Stormy Daniels received the money from Trump's attorney Michael Cohen before Trump became president, Trump's payments to Cohen — and the allegedly falsified business records — came after he was in the White House.

Trump's newest filing came as a bit of a surprise — the deadline to file pretrial motions had already passed. Judge Juan Merchan released an order the next day, on Friday, pointing out the lapsed deadline and instructing lawyers to not file further motions without first seeking permission from the court, a routine process. Both filings were not made public until Monday. Merchan also gave prosecutors until Wednesday to submit a reply.

Trump's filing contends that he's immune from state prosecution based on "official acts," and that some of the evidence against him should be kept out of trial because they were official acts — including his tweets and public comments.

It says prosecutors from Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg's office want "to offer evidence at trial concerning a fictitious so-called 'pressure campaign' by President Trump in 2018 relating to Michael Cohen." Part of that evidence, the filing said, is his public statements and tweets about Cohen.

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