Donald Trump has filed a motion to dismiss the hush money case in which he was convicted due to his victory in the US presidential election.
In May, a New York jury found Mr Trump guilty of 34 counts of falsifying business records to commit election fraud.
It was the first time a US president had been convicted of or charged with a criminal offence.
Mr Trump had tried to cover up “hush money” payments to a porn star in the days before the 2016 election.
When Stormy Daniels‘ claims of a sexual liaison threatened to upend his presidential campaign, Trump directed his lawyer to pay $130,000 (£102,000) to keep her quiet.
The filing references the pardon Joe Biden issued to his son on Monday, in which the president said Hunter Biden was ‘unfairly prosecuted’ on gun and tax charges.
Trump’s filing said: “President Biden argued that ‘raw politics has infected this process and it led to a miscarriage of justice’. These comments amounted to an extraordinary condemnation of President Biden’s own DOJ [department of justice]”.
The Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg “has engaged in ‘precisely the type of political theatre’ that President Biden has condemned”, the filing added.
“This case is based on a contrived, defective, and unprecedented legal theory relating to 2017 entries in documents that were maintained hundreds of miles away from the White House where President Trump was running the country.”
The DA’s “disruptions to the institution of the presidency violate the presidential immunity doctrine because they threaten the functioning of the federal government,” the filing said.
The prosecutors’ “ridiculous suggestion that they could simply resume proceedings after President Trump leaves office, more than a decade after they commenced their investigation in 2018, is not an option,” the filing claimed.
Trump’s lawyers also claimed the case should be thrown out because of Mr Trump’s “extraordinary service” to the US, adding that his “civil and financial contributions to this city and the nation are too numerous to count”.
A judge delayed Mr Trump’s scheduled 26 November sentencing indefinitely last month to give him the chance to seek dismissal.
The president-elect’s lawyers argue having the case loom over his four-year presidential term that begins on 20 January would cause “unconstitutional impediments” to his ability to govern.
This breaking news story is being updated and more details will be published shortly.
Please refresh the page for the fullest version.
You can receive breaking news alerts on a smartphone or tablet via the Sky News app. You can also follow us on WhatsApp and subscribe to our YouTube channel to keep up with the latest news.