Judge Juan Merchan has rejected Donald Trump’s request to overturn his conviction in the New York dirty money case, stating that the Supreme Court’s ruling on broad immunity for official acts during his term in office did not apply in this case; the evidence presented by the Manhattan district attorney’s office was not related to Trump’s official conduct as president.
Merchan’s decision thus rejected one of several avenues Trump’s lawyers have taken to try to overturn the guilty verdict handed down in May on 34 counts of falsifying business records.
Trump transition spokesman Steven Cheung said in a statement that Merchan’s decision is a direct violation of the Supreme Court’s immunity decision, and other longstanding jurisprudence.
The MAGA leader’s lawyers are likely to appeal the judge’s decision, with the case likely to be stalled for months or even years. Merchan also has yet to rule on Trump’s argument that his status as president is a “legal impediment” to further criminal proceedings against him: consequently, in his opinion, the trial should be dismissed.
Prosecutors working on the case have already agreed that the MAGA leader will not be convicted while in office. They have also written that while sentencing could be delayed or modified, overturning the jury conviction would be an unwarranted “extreme remedy.”
Last May, Trump was found guilty on 34 counts of falsifying corporate records regarding payments made to then-lawyer Michael Cohen to reimburse a $130,000 payment to porn star Stormy Daniels in order to prevent her from speaking out about an alleged affair, prior to the 2016 election.
The sentencing, scheduled for July, was postponed twice following the Supreme Court’s presidential immunity ruling. In recent months, the president-elect’s lawyers have argued that the sentence should be overturned because investigators allegedly presented evidence from Trump’s official conduct in the White House, an argument later rejected by Merchan. In a letter sent to attorneys Monday, the judge also disclosed that the president-elect’s defense team alleged juror misconduct earlier this month but did not file a motion to dismiss the conviction based on the charges.
