Trump asks NY appeals court to dismiss hush money

U.S. President-elect Donald Trump asked a New York court on Tuesday to throw out his conviction on charges stemming from hush money paid to a porn star, and to dismiss the case before his scheduled Friday sentencing. The request to a state appeals court marked a last-ditch effort by Trump to block a lower court ruling on Monday to proceed with the sentencing on Friday, 10 days before Trump's Jan. 20 inauguration. In Monday's ruling, Justice Juan Merchan rejected a request from Trump's lawyers to delay the sentencing while they appealed two of his previous rulings upholding the Manhattan jury's May guilty verdict on 34 felony counts of falsifying records. The judge wrote that Trump's request for a delay was mostly "a repetition of the arguments he has raised numerous times in the past." In scheduling Trump's sentencing for Friday, Merchan said he was not inclined to send Trump to jail. He said a sentence of unconditional discharge, effectively putting a judgment of guilt on his record without a fine or probation, would be the most practical approach given Trump's looming inauguration.