Former US President Donald Trump leaves the courthouse after a jury found him guilty of all 34 felony counts in his criminal trial at New York State Supreme Court in New York, New York, USA, 30 May 2024. Trump faced 34 felony counts of falsifying business records related to payments made to adult film star Stormy Daniels during his 2016 presidential campaign.
Justin Lane | Via Reuters
President-elect Donald Trump on Monday lost an effort to have his criminal hush money conviction dismissed in a New York court on a claim of presidential immunity.
Manhattan Supreme Court Judge Juan Merchan brushed aside arguments by Trump’s lawyers that the prosecution’s use of testimony from former White House employees at trial and before that to a grand jury, as well as other evidence, required him to toss the case.
Merchan has yet to rule on other claims by Trump’s attorneys that they say warrant dismissing his conviction on 34 felony counts of falsifying business records — claims that include Trump’s election as president in November for a second, non-consecutive term.
It is not clear when Trump might be sentenced if Merchan rejects the remaining arguments for dismissal.
The Manhattan District Attorney’s Office, which prosecuted Trump, has suggested to the judge the possibility of postponing the sentencing until after he leaves the White House, or assuring him he will not be sentenced to jail.
Trump’s attorneys in the claim rejected by Merchan on Monday cited a U.S. Supreme Court decision in July that found that Trump — and other American presidents — have presumptive criminal immunity for official acts in office.
But Merchan in his ruling said that even if he were to find that all the evidence contested by Trump’s attorneys “was official conduct falling within the outer perimeter of Defendant’s Presidential authority,” he would still find that the prosecution’s use 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.”
“Lastly this Court concludes that if error occurred regarding the introduction of the challenged evidence, such error was harmless in light of the overwhelming evidence of guilt,” Merchan wrote in the 41-page ruling.
Trump’s lawyer Todd Blanche on Monday asked Merchan to postpone sentencing the president-elect in the case until all appeals are exhausted.
Trump became the first former president convicted of a crime when in May he was found guilty of the charges in Manhattan Supreme Court — a state-level trial court.
The falsified records related to a $130,000 payment that Trump’s then-personal lawyer Michael Cohen made to porn star Stormy Daniels on the eve of the 2016 presidential election. Cohen, who later was reimbursed by Trump, has said the payment was in exchange for Daniels’ agreement to keep quiet about a purported one-time sexual tryst with Trump a decade earlier.
Trump has denied having sex with Daniels.
The payment occurred before Trump was first elected president. But some evidence at trial was connected to Trump’s tenure in the White House.
Trump’s transition spokesman Steven Cheung, in a statement obtained by NBC News, said, “Today’s decision by deeply conflicted, acting Justice Merchan in the Manhattan DA Witch Hunt is a direct violation of the Supreme Court’s decision on immunity, and other longstanding jurisprudence.”
“This lawless case should have never been brought, and the Constitution demands that it be immediately dismissed, as President Trump must be allowed to continue the Presidential Transition process, and execute the vital duties of the presidency, unobstructed by the remains of this, or any other, Witch Hunt,” Cheung said.