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(NEW YORK) — There is no reason to delay the sentencing in Donald Trump’s criminal hush money case as the former president tries to move the case from state court into federal court, the Manhattan district attorney’s office said Tuesday in a letter to the judge overseeing the case.

Trump last week made his second request to push the case into federal court, after he was found guilty in May on 34 felony counts of falsifying business records related to a hush money payment to adult film actress Stormy Daniels in order to boost his electoral prospects in the 2016 presidential election.

Sentencing in the case is currently scheduled for Sept. 18. The former president has also asked the judge overseeing the case, Juan Merchan, to postpone the sentencing until after the November election.

The district attorney’s office declined to take a position on when Trump’s sentencing should occur, leaving it to the discretion of the judge.

However, in their letter Tuesday to Judge Merchan, prosecutors Matthew Colangelo and Christopher Conroy argued that both of Trump’s requests can be handled simultaneously.

“We note that the concerns defendant expresses about timing are a function of his own strategic and dilatory litigation tactics: This second notice of removal comes nearly ten months after defendant voluntarily abandoned his appeal from his first, unsuccessful effort to remove this case; three months after he was found guilty by a jury on thirty-four felony counts; and nearly two months after defendant asked this Court to consider his CPL § 330.30 motion for a new trial,” Tuesday’s letter said.

Trump has said he will appeal his conviction.

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(FRESNO, Calif.) — A Central California police sergeant was in a hospital recovering from bullet wounds Monday after he was “ambushed” over the weekend by a gunman who was killed in a subsequent shoot-out and later linked to a homicide victim found inside a residence, authorities said.

The shooting unfolded on Saturday in Fresno after the sergeant and two patrol officers were dispatched to investigate a ShotSpotter gunshot detection call at about 5:23 p.m., according to Fresno Interim Police Chief Mindy Castro.

Castro said the sergeant, a 21-year veteran of the Fresno Police Department, and the other officers had spent about an hour searching for evidence of a shooting in the neighborhood east of downtown Fresno when the ambush occurred. She said the suspect wielding an AR-style pistol drove by in a car and, without warning, opened fire on the sergeant who at the time was sitting in a parked patrol vehicle working on his computer.

“A Fresno police sergeant was ambushed here tonight,” Castro said as she began a news conference near the shooting scene.

Castro said two other officers were standing in the street searching for shell casings when gunfire erupted.

“The sergeant was in his car when the suspect returned completely unexpectedly and began firing shots at the sergeant,” said Castro, adding that the sergeant’s patrol car was riddled with bullets.

Castro said the sergeant, whose name was not released, suffered bullet wounds to his lower extremities.

The gunman, whose name was also not released, attempted to flee the scene, but crashed about a block away, Castro said.

Despite being wounded, the sergeant and the other officers chased the suspect and ended up in a shoot-out with him after the gunman got out of his wrecked car and opened fire on the officers, Castro said.

A Ring doorbell camera video from a residence obtained by ABC Fresno station KFSN captured what sounded like a dozen shots fired in the incident.

Castro said that after the suspect was shot and fell to the ground, the injured sergeant collapsed and radioed for an ambulance for them both.

The suspect was later pronounced dead at a hospital, Castro said.

A statement posted on the police department’s Facebook page Sunday evening said the sergeant remained in the hospital in stable condition.

Castro said she viewed the sergeant’s body camera video and described the sergeant’s and the other officers’ actions in engaging the suspect as a “picture of courageousness and calm.”

Before the gunfight, police obtained surveillance video that captured the suspect holding a gun as he exited a house near the shooting scene and got into a car matching the one involved in the ambush, Castro said.

Following the shooting, officers went to the house seen in the security video, forced their way in and discovered a homicide victim inside, Castro said.

Castro said it remains under investigation whether the ShotSpotter activation that initially drew the officers to the scene was caused by the shooting inside the residence.

“We’re still working to investigate that crime as well as the ambush shooting of one of our officers,” Castro said.

The identity of the homicide victim was pending an autopsy.

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(WASHINGTON) — Former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani has been permanently disbarred from practicing law in the District of Columbia, a court of appeals panel ruled Thursday.

According to the ruling, Giuliani’s disbarment is a resort of reciprocal discipline resulting from his law license being stripped in New York state over his efforts aiding former President Donald Trump’s bid to overturn the 2020 election.

Giuliani’s law license had already been suspended in D.C.

The appeals court panel noted that Giuliani declined to respond when given notice back in July that he could face reciprocal discipline.

In a report issued in July, the D.C. Board on Professional Responsibility recommended Giuliani be disbarred, saying that in his capacity as personal attorney to then-President Trump, he committed misconduct by his “frivolous and destructive” efforts to overturn President Joe Biden’s win through his failed legal challenges to the election results in Pennsylvania.

According to the report, the former New York City mayor violated two legal ethics rules in bringing the lawsuit, which sought to block the certification of votes in the state following Trump’s defeat.

The committee said that one of the rules was violated when he filed the lawsuit in Pennsylvania “when he had no factual basis and no legitimate legal grounds to do so.”

The other rule Giuliani violated was Pennsylvania’s Rules of Professional Conduct, the report said.

“He claimed massive election fraud but had no evidence of it,” the committee wrote.

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