Ex-prez seeks to delay Stormy trial pending Supes’ immunity ruling
Bldg. owner faces arrest over failure to fix ‘hazardous violations’
Donald Trump is trying to push back his upcoming trial in the Stormy Daniels hush money case in an eleventh-hour delay bid, arguing that it shouldn’t go forward until the Supreme Court rules on his presidential immunity claim.
In Manhattan Supreme Court filings, Trump’s lawyers said evidence prosecutors intend to present at the criminal trial — set to be Trump’s first of four and potentially the only one he attends before the election — is related to his outstanding immunity claim before the nation’s high court. Specifically, they cited public statements Trump made as president and posts to his official presidential account on X, in addition to related witness testimony.
In the March 7 documents filed publicly on Monday, Trump lawyers Susan Necheles and Todd Blanche added that the evidence “implicates presidential immunity because President Trump was President of the United States at the time of those actions in 2018.”
“Without immunity from criminal prosecution based on official acts, the president’s political opponents will seek to influence and control his or her decisions via de facto extortion or blackmail with the threat, explicit or implicit, of indictment by a future, hostile administration, for acts that do not warrant any such prosecution,” Necheles and Blanche wrote.
“This threat will hang like a millstone around every future President’s neck, distorting presidential decision making, undermining the president’s independence, and clouding the president’s ability “to deal fearlessly and impartially with the duties of his office.”
The Supreme Court is set to hear arguments on April 25 before deciding whether Trump’s actions as president were immune from criminal charges brought by special prosecutor Jack Smith in his federal election subversion case.
It’s unclear how long the justices will wait to rule on whether Trump is above the law after hearing arguments, but it could be as late as June.
The GOP front-runner has pleaded not guilty to 34 felonies in the case brought by Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg that alleges he covered up reimbursement to his ex-lawyer Michael Cohen for a hush money payoff to Daniels in 2017 to disguise a “catch and kill” scheme illegally orchestrated to secure his presidential victory the year before.
Trump has sought to invoke the presidential immunity defense in all his criminal matters. Last year, he failed to get Bragg’s case moved to federal court by arguing the conduct was carried out under his official presidential responsibilities, arguing it “w[as] taken solely because he was president of the United States” and that his decision to retain Cohen as his personal lawyer “arose out of his duties as president.”
U.S. District Court Judge Alvin Hellerstein rejected those arguments in July, finding that events occurring during Trump’s presidency didn’t automatically fit within the context of his duties.
“Trump has not explained how hiring and making payments to a personal attorney to handle personal affairs carries out a constitutional duty. Reimbursing Cohen for advancing hush money to Stephanie Clifford cannot be considered the performance of a constitutional duty,” Hellerstein wrote.
“Falsifying business records to hide such reimbursement, and to transform the reimbursement into a business expense for Trump and income to Cohen, likewise does not relate to a presidential duty.”
Bragg’s office declined to comment. Prosecutors are expected to respond in court filings by Wednesday, and Judge Juan Merchan is slated to rule on several pretrial motions from both sides on Thursday.
The judge has yet to issue a decision on Bragg’s request for a limited gag order that would prohibit Trump from public remarks about witnesses, prosecutors in the case — not including Bragg — Merchan’s staff and the DA’s staff, their relatives, and prospective jurors.
Last week, Merchan ruled that the jury would be anonymous to the public and that their addresses would only be disclosed to lawyers.
A New York City judge took the rare step of issuing an arrest warrant for one of the city’s most infamous landlords for allegedly failing to correct hundreds of hazardous building violations at a pair of Washington Heights properties.
Daniel Ohebshalom, also known as Dan Shalom, figured at the top of the public advocate’s “Worst Landlords” watchlist for the second consecutive year in December. There were a record-breaking 3,293 open violations across 300 apartments in 15 buildings he owns. An agent of Ohebshalom, Jonathan Santana, is technically listed in the No. 1 spot.
Manhattan Judge Jack Stoller found the notorious slumlord showed a “sustained lack of seriousness” in making the court-mandated fixes at 705 and 709 170th St. in upper Manhattan. Ohebshalom is now facing the prospect of up to 60 days in jail on Rikers Island unless he does so.
The city’s Department of Housing Preservation and Development (HPD) announced on Monday it helped secure the warrant after years of litigating against Ohebshalom alongside affected tenants. The two Washington Heights buildings alone have more than 700 housing violations, including mold, peeling lead paint and rat infestations.
“The most striking factor informing the court’s discretion is the duration of the contempt proceeding. The court held respondents in civil contempt as of Feb. 2, 2023, more than 13 months before this writing,” Stoller wrote. “Moreover, the sheer volume of extant hazardous and immediately hazardous violations bespeaks the extent of respondents’ contempt.”
Stoller ordered the city Sheriff’s Department to collaborate with law enforcement in California to execute the warrant, as Ohebshalom is believed to reside in the Los Angeles area. He could either be extradited by California police or come to New York voluntarily, according to an HPD rep.
Commissioner Adolfo Carrión Jr. described the Washington Heights cases as “a small portion of his portfolio” at a budget hearing on Monday, where he touted the arrest warrant.
“I want to be crystal clear, if you create unsafe, unhealthy, and unlivable conditions, we will hold you accountable. Let this be a message to all landlords that HPD will make certain the law is enforced to protect every New Yorker from dangerous housing conditions,” he said in a statement.
Carrión repeatedly referred to Ohebshalom as a “slumlord” at the budget hearing.
The department said in December it was “aggressively” litigating against Ohebshalom and his company, Keystone Management, across the five boroughs. In October the city hit him with $4.2 million in penalties from three lawsuits over issues including allegedly running illegal hotels.
But Monday’s arrest warrant was an unusually stringent step. An HPD spokesman said the last time such a warrant was issued was in December 2022 against Aron Stark, whose Bushwick building had no heat and was infested with roaches. He spent eight days on Rikers.
Tenants, advocates and even elected officials have long criticized the city for not cracking down hard enough on irresponsible landlords, an issue that has come to the fore since the dramatic partial building collapse in the Bronx last year that did not result in any fatalities.
Stoller’s warrant initially called for a maximum of 180 days in civil jail, but the number was crossed out and replaced with “60.”
Ohebshalom and his attorney could not immediately be reached for comment.