Current:Home > StocksProsecutors urge judge not to toss out Trump’s hush money conviction, pushing back on immunity claim-InfoLens
Prosecutors urge judge not to toss out Trump’s hush money conviction, pushing back on immunity claim
View Date:2024-12-23 14:13:00
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! (5)
Related
- Brian Austin Green’s Fiancée Sharna Burgess Celebrates Megan Fox’s Pregnancy News
- Take an Active Interest in These Secrets About American Beauty
- Prince Harry is marking a midlife milestone far from family
- Which candidate is better for tech innovation? Venture capitalists divided on Harris or Trump
- Report: Jaguars' Trevor Lawrence could miss rest of season with shoulder injury
- D'Pharaoh Woon-A-Tai arrives at the Emmys with powerful statement honoring missing Indigenous women
- A ‘Trump Train’ convoy surrounded a Biden-Harris bus. Was it political violence?
- DJT shares pop after Donald Trump says 'I am not selling' Trump Media stake
- Richard Allen found guilty in the murders of two teens in Delphi, Indiana. What now?
- Arizona man accused of online terror threats has been arrested in Montana
Ranking
- Gavin Rossdale Makes Rare Public Appearance With Girlfriend Xhoana Xheneti
- Texas on top! Longhorns take over at No. 1 in AP Top 25 for first time in 16 years, jumping Georgia
- 2024 Emmys: Jodie Foster Shares Special Message for Wife Alexandra Hedison
- Georgia remains No. 1 after scare, Texas moves up to No. 2 in latest US LBM Coaches Poll
- Chiefs block last-second field goal to save unbeaten record, beat Broncos
- Buying a house? Four unconventional ways to become a homeowner.
- A ‘Trump Train’ convoy surrounded a Biden-Harris bus. Was it political violence?
- Emmys 2024: Slow Horses' Will Smith Clarifies He's Not the Will Smith You Think He Is
Recommendation
-
University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign chancellor to step down at end of academic year
-
NATO military committee chair backs Ukraine’s use of long range weapons to hit Russia
-
A Minnesota man gets 33 years for fatally stabbing his wife during Bible study
-
Taylor Swift's Mom Andrea Swift Wears Sweet Tribute to Travis Kelce at Chiefs Game
-
Trump has promised to ‘save TikTok’. What happens next is less clear
-
Brian Kelly bandwagon empties, but LSU football escapes disaster against South Carolina
-
Saints stun Cowboys, snap NFL's longest active regular-season home win streak
-
‘The Life of Chuck’ wins the Toronto Film Festival’s People’s Choice Award