Donald Trump's Bid To Toss Hush Money Conviction Rejected By Judge
Donald Trump's Bid To Toss Hush Money Conviction Rejected By Judge . (MENAFN - Live Mint) A Manhattan Judge, Juan M. Merchan on Monday rejected to throw out President-elect Donald Trum 's hush money conviction because of the US Supreme Court's recent ruling on ...
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(MENAFN- Live Mint) A Manhattan Judge, Juan M. Merchan on Monday rejected to throw out President-elect Donald Trum 's hush money conviction because of the US Supreme Court's recent ruling on presidential immunity, as reported by the Associated Press.

However, the overall future of the historic case remains unclear.

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Manhattan Judge Juan M. Merchan's decision blocks one potential off-ramp from the case ahead of the former and future president's return to office next month. His lawyers have raised other arguments for dismissal, however. It's unclear when - or whether - a sentencing date might be set, AP report said.





Prosecutors have said some accommodations should be made for his upcoming presidency, but they insist the“conviction should stand”.

It is to be further noted that a jury convicted Trump in May of 34 counts of falsifying business records related to a $130,000 hush money payment to porn actor Stormy Daniels in 2016.

Donald Trump denies all the wrongdoing.

The allegations centre around a plan to conceal the payment to Daniels during the final days of Trump's 2016 presidential campaign, aiming to prevent her from revealing her claim of a sexual encounter with the married businessman years earlier. Trump denies any sexual involvement with her.

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A month after the verdict, the Supreme Court ruled that former presidents cannot be prosecuted for actions taken while in office and that such actions cannot be used to support a case focused on personal, non-official conduct.

Associated Press reported that Trump's lawyers then cited the Supreme Court opinion to argue that the hush money jury got some improper evidence, such as Trump's presidential financial disclosure form, testimony from some White House aides and social media posts made while he was in office.

In Monday's ruling, Merchan denied the bulk of Trump's claims that some of the prosecutors' evidence related to official acts and implicated immunity protections.

AP reported, the judge said that even if he found that some evidence related to official conduct, he'd still conclude that prosecutors' decision to use“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.”

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Even if prosecutors had erroneously introduced evidence that could be challenged under an immunity claim, Merchan continued,“such error was harmless in light of the overwhelming evidence of guilt.”

Prosecutors had said the evidence in question was only“a sliver” of their case.

Trump communications director Steven Cheung on Monday called Merchan's decision 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,” Cheung said in a statement.

Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg's office, which prosecuted the case, declined to comment.

Merchan's decision noted that part of the Supreme Court's immunity ruling declared that“not everything the president does is official.” Trump's social media posts, for example, were personal, Merchan wrote.

Also Read: Now that Donald Trump becomes US President again, what happens to criminal cases against him?

He also pointed to a prior federal court ruling that concluded that the hush money payment and subsequent reimbursements pertained to Trump's private life, not official duties.

Trump, a Republican, will take office on January 20. He is the first former president to be convicted of a felony and the first convicted criminal to be elected to the presidency.

In the past six months, his legal team has made several attempts to have the conviction and the entire case dismissed. Following Trump's victory in last month's election, Judge Merchan postponed his sentencing-originally set for late November-indefinitely, allowing both the defense and prosecutors to discuss the next steps.

(With inputs from AP)
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2024-12-16
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(MENAFN - Live Mint) A Manhattan Judge, Juan M. Merchan on Monday rejected to throw out President-elect Donald Trum 's hush money conviction because of the US Supreme Court's recent ruling on ...
Donald Trump's Bid To Toss Hush Money Conviction Rejected By Judge