The president-elect’s attempt to overturn his guilty judgment on the grounds of presidential immunity was rejected by the New York judge who oversaw Donald Trump’s hush money trial.
Judge Juan Merchan wrote, “Defendant’s motion to dismiss the indictment and verdict is denied,” in a ruling on Monday.
After rejecting Trump’s claim that his election victory already grants him presidential protection, he issued the ruling. When the judge wrote, “This court does not agree,”
Steven Cheung, a Trump spokesman, criticized the decision, saying it was a clear breach of the Supreme Court’s immunity judgment.
“This lawless case should have never been brought, and the Constitution demands that it be immediately dismissed,” he stated.
In May, Trump was found guilty on 34 charges of falsifying business documents pertaining to a hush money payment made to porn star Stormy Daniels by his former attorney, Michael Cohen, during the final days of the 2016 presidential campaign. Trump has refuted Daniels’ claim that she had a sexual encounter with him in 2006.
Following a Supreme Court decision weeks later that established a new standard for presidential immunity, Trump’s lawyers had claimed that the indictment and verdict should be overturned.
They argued that the Manhattan district attorney’s office prosecutors shouldn’t have been permitted to show jurors any documentation of Trump’s official actions, such as his remarks made in public on the case. The prosecution retorted that the verdict should stand and that the evidence had no bearing on it.
Citing “the overwhelming evidence of guilt” put out by the district attorney’s office, the judge concurred.
Furthermore, he stated that some of Trump’s “claims relate entirely to unofficial conduct and thus, receive no immunity protections.”
“[E]ven if this Court were to deem all of the contested evidence, both preserved and unpreserved, as official conduct falling within the outer perimeter of Defendant s Presidential authority, it would still find that the People s use of these acts as evidence of the decidedly personal acts of falsifying business records poses no danger of intrusion on the authority and function of the Executive Branch,” he stated.
Last month, Merchan delayed sentencing while he reviewed Trump’s motions to have the case dismissed. In his order on Monday, the judge disclosed that Trump also has an ongoing dispute with alleged juror misconduct, in addition to another, more comprehensive motion that is currently waiting.
Merchan directed lawyers on both sides to provide their letters on the matter publicly, with redactions, but the ruling made no mention of the specifics of the misbehavior.
A new sentencing date has not been scheduled by the judge.
On January 20, Trump is expected to take the oath of office as president.
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