New York appeals court to hear Trump's bid to halt hush money sentencing

Contributing sentiments towards policy:

62% : "Remember, this is a man that said he wants the transition to be smooth," Trump told reporters on Tuesday.
53% : In an apparent reference to Merchan, Trump said a "crooked judge" in New York was complicating a smooth transition.
49% : After Trump won the November election, his lawyers argued that having the case hang over him while serving as president would impede his ability to govern.
48% : "In a court filing on Tuesday with the Appellate Division, Trump's lawyers said a sitting president's immunity from prosecution extends to the transition period between winning the election and inauguration."Justice Merchan is without authority under the law to proceed to sentencing while President Trump exercises his federal constitutional right to challenge these rulings," Trump's lawyers Todd Blanche and Emil Bove wrote.
47% : The request to the Appellate Division, a mid-level state appeals court, represented a last-ditch effort by Trump to block the trial judge's ruling on Monday to proceed with the sentencing, scheduled for 10 days before his inauguration.
40% : The hush money case made Trump the first U.S. president - sitting or former - to be charged with a crime and also the first to be convicted.
25% : Trump has argued that Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg, a Democrat, brought the case to harm his 2024 election bid.
21% : Merchan previously rejected their argument that the U.S. Supreme Court's July decision in a separate criminal case against Trump that presidents cannot be prosecuted for official acts meant the hush money case must be dismissed.
17% : Trump, a Republican, defeated Democrat Hillary Clinton in that election.
10% : The case stemmed from a $130,000 payment that Trump's former lawyer Michael Cohen made to adult film actress Stormy Daniels to keep her quiet before the 2016 election about a sexual encounter she said she had a decade earlier with Trump, who denies it.
9% : "In scheduling Trump's sentencing for Friday, Merchan said he was not inclined to send Trump to prison.

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