The New York judge who presided over Donald Trump’s hush money trial denied the president-elect’s bid to overturn his guilty verdict on presidential immunity grounds.
“The defendant’s request to dismiss the indictment and sentence is denied,” Judge Juan Merchan wrote in a ruling Monday.
Merchan made the decision after also denying Trump’s argument that he is already protected by presidential immunity because of his election victory. “This court disagrees,” he wrote.
Trump spokesman Steven Cheung slammed the ruling, calling it “a direct violation of the Supreme Court’s decision on immunity.”
“This lawless case should never have been brought, and the Constitution demands that it be dismissed immediately,” he said.
Trump was convicted in May of 34 counts of falsifying company records in connection with a hush-money payment his then-lawyer Michael Cohen paid to porn star Stormy Daniels in the final days of the 2016 presidential election. Daniels claimed she had a sexual encounter in 2006 with Trump, an accusation he has denied.
Trump’s lawyers had argued the charge and the verdict should be thrown out in light of a Supreme Court ruling issued weeks later that created a new standard for presidential immunity.
Donald Trump at Manhattan Criminal Court on May 28, 2024.
Prosecutors at the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office said they should not have presented evidence of Trump’s “official actions” to jurors, including public statements related to the case. Prosecutors countered that the evidence had no bearing on the verdict, which they said should stand.
Merchan agreed, citing “the overwhelming evidence of guilt” the prosecution presented.
He said some of Trump’s claims “entirely involve unofficial conduct and thus do not enjoy immunity protection.”
“[E]Even if this Court were to regard all of the impugned evidence, both preserved and unpreserved, as official conduct falling within the outer limits of defendant’s presidential authority, it would still conclude that the People’s use of this acts as evidence of the decidedly personal acts of Falsifying corporate documents does not threaten to infringe on the authority and function of the executive branch,” he wrote.
Merchan postponed sentencing last month while he considers Trump’s proposals to dismiss the case. Trump has another, more sweeping motion still pending, and Merchan revealed in his order Monday that Trump also has a pending argument over allegations of juror misconduct.
The order did not mention the nature of the misconduct. Merchan instructed attorneys for both sides to file their letters on the matter publicly and with redactions.
He has not set a new sentencing date.
Trump is scheduled to be sworn in as president on January 20.
This article was originally published on NBCNews.com
