Justice Juan M. Merchan on Monday rejected the latest bid by President-elect Donald Trump to clear his record of 34 felonies before returning to the White House, the New York Times reported.
If the ruling stands, it will officially make Trump the first felon to serve as president. In May, he was found guilty by a New York jury on all 34 charges in a scheme to illegally influence the 2016 election by paying hush money to porn star Stormy Daniels to suppress their alleged relationship.
Merchan ruled that the Supreme Court’s broad interpretation of presidential immunity had no bearing on Trump’s previous convictions since the legal verdicts occurred when he was not president.
“The People’s use of these acts as evidence of the decidedly personal acts of falsifying business records poses no danger of intrusion on the authority and function of the Executive Branch,” Merchan wrote in his 41-page decision.
In July, the Supreme Court ruled that a president, even a former president, is entitled to “absolute immunity from criminal prosecution for actions within his conclusive and preclusive constitutional authority,” although the justices stated that the presumptive immunity applies to his “official acts.” Trump’s lawyers, meanwhile, argued that the higher court’s ruling should extend to cases of private misconduct.
Elsewhere in the July ruling, the justices wrote that “other allegations — such as those involving Trump’s interactions with the vice president, state officials and certain private parties, and his comments to the general public — present more difficult questions.”
The separate federal cases against Trump for mishandling of classified documents and inciting the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S Capitol were dropped in November by special counsel Jack Smith.
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