Former President Donald Trump has asked Judge Juan Marchan, who presided over his Manhattan business records case, to throw out the conviction in light of the Supreme Court’s ruling on presidential immunity.
The Supreme Court ruled 6-3 on Monday that presidents have limited immunity from criminal prosecution for official acts performed while in office, but not for non-official acts.
In the Supreme Court ruling, the court held:
Under our constitutional separation of powers structure, the nature of presidential power means that former presidents are entitled to absolute immunity from criminal prosecution for acts that fall within the scope of their definitive and exclusive constitutional authority, and to at least presumptive immunity for all official acts. No immunity is available for unofficial acts.
In a letter to Marchan, Trump’s lawyers “sought permission to file a motion.” Overturn The guilty verdict is The New York TimesIn late May, a Manhattan jury found Trump guilty of 34 first-degree counts of falsifying business records in connection with payments made to adult entertainment actress Stormy Daniels during the 2016 presidential campaign.
The media also reported that the former president’s lawyers had asked Marchan to “delay” Trump’s sentencing, considering whether the Supreme Court’s immunity decision affected Trump’s conviction.
Trump is scheduled to be sentenced on July 11, four days before the Republican National Convention begins on July 15.
The outlet noted that while seeking to overturn the conviction may be a “long shot,” Trump’s legal team “will likely argue that prosecutors built their case around evidence from his time in the White House.”
Efforts to vacate the conviction are unlikely to succeed. The Manhattan case focuses on Trump’s actions as a candidate, not as president.
But his defense team is likely to argue that prosecutors built their case in part on evidence from his time in the White House, and under the Supreme Court’s new ruling, prosecutors not only cannot charge a president with any official conduct, but also cannot cite evidence about official conduct to bolster other charges.
Following the Supreme Court’s ruling on presidential immunity, Democrats suggested that if Trump is re-elected, they could legally go after his political opponents.
Breitbart News reported:
As Democrats argue that Trump and other presidents can legally pursue their opponents, they appear to be acknowledging that Biden did so illegally, at least according to the Supreme Court, which also ruled last week that prosecutors abused federal law to go after some of the participants in the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol.
Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-New York) responded to the Supreme Court’s decision by saying she plans to file articles of impeachment against unnamed members of the Supreme Court.
