A New York judge upheld a jury’s verdict that made President-elect Trump a felon, ruling the conviction in the hush money case can withstand the Supreme Court’s new test for presidential immunity.
Judge Juan Merchan’s decision comes on the heels of Trump’s presidential election victory against Vice President Harris, when voters chose to catapult him back to the White House despite his years of legal peril.
The judge has not yet ruled on Trump’s efforts to toss the case entirely now that he is president-elect.
Trump’s attorneys contended that New York prosecutors introduced evidence during his seven-week trial that was protected by the Supreme Court’s presidential immunity doctrine.
Among other things, the challenged evidence included testimony from Trump White House aides, tweets Trump issued while in office and his government ethics form.
The judge ruled Trump failed to preserve some of his immunity objections by not raising them earlier, but regardless, none of the evidence was protected.
“The evidence related to the preserved claims relate entirely to unofficial conduct and thus, receive no immunity protections; and as to the claims that were unpreserved, this Court finds in the alternative, that when considered on the merits, they too are denied because they relate entirely to unofficial conduct,” Merchan wrote in his ruling.
After the trial, the high court held that former presidents enjoy absolute immunity from criminal prosecution for exercising core constitutional powers and at least presumptive immunity for other official acts. Unofficial conduct can be prosecuted, but the jury cannot question the motivation behind a presidential decision, the court said.
Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg (D) urged the judge to reject Trump’s arguments, arguing that no evidence placed before the jury was protected, and even if it was, it paled in comparison to “other overwhelming evidence of defendant’s guilt.”
Merchan agreed, writing that even if immunity did extend to the evidence in question, he “would still find that 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, a conclusion amply supported by non-motive-related evidence.”
Trump was convicted on 34 counts of falsifying business records tied to a $130,000 hush money payment made to adult film actress Stormy Daniels ahead of the 2016 presidential election to conceal an affair, which he denies. Prosecutors with the district attorney’s office portrayed the scheme as an effort to unlawfully influence the election’s outcome.
The New York hush money case was the first-ever criminal prosecution of a former president, and the only one to have reached trial.
Trump has separately argued that his White House victory compels the dismissal of the jury’s verdict and the case in its entirety. Bragg has pushed back, instead laying out alternatives like freezing the proceedings during Trump’s term.
The judge has yet to rule on that matter.
“Today’s decision by deeply conflicted, acting Justice Merchan in the Manhattan DA Witch Hunt is a direct violation of the Supreme Court’s decision on immunity, and other longstanding jurisprudence,” Steven Cheung, Trump’s spokesperson and incoming White House communications director, said in a statement.
Bragg’s office declined to comment on the ruling.
In a separate letter, Merchan revealed that Trump also sent a Dec. 3 letter alleging juror misconduct. The judge provided sparse details but indicated the issue would be made public with redactions.
Trump’s other criminal proceedings have fared worse following his presidential win.
Special counsel Jack Smith dismissed all charges against Trump in his federal election subversion and classified documents cases, while the president-elect's Georgia criminal case is paused indefinitely as an appeals court weighs a pretrial defense challenge. Trump’s lawyers have pushed to end that case, too.
Updated 7:53 p.m.
