Washington – Former President Donald Trump's lawyer Todd Blanche said Friday that Trump's legal team plans to challenge Trump's guilty verdict in his criminal case in New York, expressing confidence that the conviction will be overturned on appeal.
“We want to move forward with an appeal,” Blanche told CBS News chief election and campaign correspondent Robert Costa. “We think an appeal has a lot of value. We think we will win on appeal.”
A Manhattan jury found Trump guilty Thursday about falsifying business records in the case, which stemmed from a payment to silence adult film star Stormy Daniels ahead of the 2016 election. Trump, who has denied having a sexual encounter with Daniels, mentioned the process 'rigged'.
Blanche said it is unlikely that Trump's legal team will ask to move the date of his July 11 sentencing, suggesting they are eager to get past it and appeal. Trump's sentencing is scheduled four days before the start of the Republican National Convention, where he is expected to officially become the party's nominee.
“Appealing is important to him and important to the American people,” Blanche said, adding that the legal team plans to raise “many issues” during the appeal, including matters related to the state statute of limitations, jurisdiction issues. and evidentiary decisions.
“That process begins after sentencing,” he said.
Blanche said Trump and his team will challenge the conviction “until whichever court ultimately corrects this error,” and did not rule out a possible petition for Supreme Court review.
He admitted that “it is possible” that Trump could be behind bars during the convention if the judge imposes jail or prison time and refuses to suspend the sentence as the appeal proceeds.
“If there is a sentence of imprisonment, and how that is carried out and when it is carried out – I expect we will ask for a suspension of any sentence while the appeals process works its way through the courts,” Blanche said. “That's discretionary. That's not something that should be allowed. So that's something I don't want to think about. I don't think it's going to happen. But of course it's possible.”
