Current:Home > NewsProsecutors urge judge not to toss out Trump’s hush money conviction, pushing back on immunity claim-DB Wealth Institute B2 Expert Reviews
Prosecutors urge judge not to toss out Trump’s hush money conviction, pushing back on immunity claim
View Date:2024-12-23 14:48:05
NEW YORK (AP) — Prosecutors are urging a judge to uphold Donald Trump’s historic hush money conviction, arguing in court papers made public Thursday that the verdict should stand despite the Supreme Court’s recent ruling on presidential immunity.
The Manhattan district attorney’s office said in a court filing that the high court’s opinion “has no bearing” on the hush money case because it involves unofficial acts for which a former president is not immune.
“There is no basis for disturbing the jury’s verdict,” prosecutors wrote in a 66-page filing.
Lawyers for the Republican presidential nominee are trying to get the verdict — and even the indictment — tossed out because of the Supreme Court’s decision July 1. The ruling insulates former presidents from being criminally prosecuted for official acts and bars prosecutors from pointing to official acts as evidence that a commander in chief’s unofficial actions were illegal.
That decision came about a month after a Manhattan jury found Trump guilty of falsifying business records to conceal a deal to pay off porn actor Stormy Daniels shortly before the 2016 election. At the time, she was considering going public with a story of a 2006 sexual encounter with Trump, who says no such thing happened. He has denied any wrongdoing.
Trump was a private citizen when his then-lawyer, Michael Cohen, paid Daniels. But Trump was president when Cohen was reimbursed. Prosecutors say those repayments were misleadingly logged simply as legal expenses in Trump’s company records. Cohen testified that he and Trump discussed the repayment arrangement in the Oval Office.
Trump’s lawyers have argued that prosecutors rushed to trial instead of waiting for the Supreme Court’s view on presidential immunity, and that the trial was “tainted” by evidence that should not have been allowed under the high court’s ruling.
Judge Juan M. Merchan plans to rule Sept. 6 on the Trump lawyers’ request. The judge has set Trump’s sentencing for Sept. 18, “if such is still necessary” after he reaches his conclusions about immunity.
The sentencing, which carries the potential for anything from probation to up to four years in prison, initially was set for mid-July. But within hours of the Supreme Court’s ruling, Trump’s team asked to delay the sentencing. Merchan soon pushed the sentencing back to consider their immunity arguments.
Under the Supreme Court’s decision, lower courts are largely the ones that will have to figure out what constitutes an official act.
Indeed, even the conservative justices responsible for the majority opinion differed about what is proper for jurors to hear about a president’s conduct.
In a separate concurring opinion, Justice Amy Coney Barrett wrote that the Constitution does not require juries to be blinded “to the circumstances surrounding conduct for which presidents can be held liable” and suggested that it would needlessly “hamstring” a prosecutor’s case to prohibit any mention of an official act in question.
Before the Supreme Court ruling, Trump’s lawyers brought up presidential immunity in a failed bid last year to get the hush money case moved from state court to federal court.
Later, they tried to hold off the hush money trial until the Supreme Court ruled on his immunity claim, which arose from a separate prosecution — the Washington-based federal criminal case surrounding Trump’s efforts to overturn his 2020 presidential election loss.
Trump’s lawyers never raised presidential immunity as a defense in the hush money trial, but they tried unsuccessfully to prevent prosecutors from showing the jury evidence from his time in office.
veryGood! (83621)
Related
- New Yorkers vent their feelings over the election and the Knicks via subway tunnel sticky notes
- Sarah Hildebrandt gives Team USA second wrestling gold medal in as many nights
- Immigration issues sorted, Guatemala runner Luis Grijalva can now focus solely on sports
- 1 of last GOP congressmen who voted to impeach Trump advances in Washington’s US House race
- When does Spirit Christmas open? What to know about Spirit Halloween’s new holiday venture
- Olympic women's basketball bracket: Schedule, results, Team USA's path to gold
- Illinois governor calls for resignation of sheriff whose deputy fatally shot Black woman in her home
- Louisiana high court temporarily removes Judge Eboni Johnson Rose from Baton Rouge bench amid probe
- Eva Longoria calls US 'dystopian' under Trump, has moved with husband and son
- Nelly Arrested for Possession of Ecstasy
Ranking
- Only 8 monkeys remain free after more than a week outside a South Carolina compound
- 51-year-old Andy Macdonald puts on Tony Hawk-approved Olympic skateboard showing
- Could we talk ourselves into a recession?
- Hello Kitty's 50th Anniversary Extravaganza: Shop Purr-fect Collectibles & Gifts for Every Sanrio Fan
- SNL's Chloe Fineman Says Rude Elon Musk Made Her Burst Into Tears as Show Host
- The GOP and Kansas’ Democratic governor ousted targeted lawmakers in the state’s primary
- Claim to Fame Reveal of Michael Jackson's Relative Is a True Thriller
- Sonya Massey's family keeps eyes on 'full justice' one month after shooting
Recommendation
-
Sister Wives' Janelle Brown Details to Meri Why She Can't Trust Ex Kody and His Sole Wife Robyn
-
Helicopter crash at a military base in Alabama kills 1 and injures another, county coroner says
-
NCAA President Charlie Baker would be 'shocked' if women's tournament revenue units isn't passed
-
Census categories misrepresent the ‘street race’ of Latinos, Afro Latinos, report says
-
What’s the secret to growing strong, healthy nails?
-
IOC's decision to separate speed climbing from other disciplines paying off
-
Colin Farrell tears up discussing his son's Angelman syndrome: 'He's extraordinary'
-
Simone Biles, an athlete in a sleeping bag and an important lesson from the Olympics