Judge Juan Merchan on Monday upheld the 34 felony convictions against President Trump despite the Supreme Court’s presidential immunity ruling.
In April, Trump was convicted on all 34 felony counts after he was accused of paying porn star Stormy Daniels, AKA, Stephanie Clifford, ‘hush payments’ through his then-attorney Michael Cohen in a scheme to silence her and stop the story about their alleged affair from being published in the National Enquirer.
Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg alleged Trump committed fraud because the payment was labeled “legal fees.”
Late last month Judge Merchan delayed Trump’s November 26 sentencing in Alvin Bragg’s lawfare case indefinitely.
Trump’s lawyers a couple of weeks ago filed several motions to dismiss the case.
On Monday Merchan rejected Trump’s effort to overturn the felony conviction based on the presidential immunity argument after the Supreme Court ruled US presidents have immunity from prosecution from official acts.
Judge Merchan has not yet ruled on Trump’s request have the case tossed out entirely.
The AP reported:
A judge Monday rejected President-elect Donald Trump’s bid to have his hush money conviction dismissed because of the U.S. Supreme Court’s recent ruling on presidential immunity. But the case’s overall future remains unclear.
Manhattan Judge Juan M. Merchan’s decision eliminates one potential off-ramp from the case ahead of Trump’s return to office next month. His lawyers have raised other arguments for dismissal, however.
[…]
In Monday’s ruling, Merchan denied the bulk of Trump’s claims that some of prosecutors’ evidence related to official acts and implicated immunity protections.
The judge said that even if he found that some evidence related to official conduct, he’d still find that prosecutors’ decision to use “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.”
Even if prosecutors had erroneously introduced evidence that could be challenged under an immunity claim, Merchan continued, “such error was harmless in light of the overwhelming evidence of guilt.”
The US Supreme Court earlier this month declined to lift the gag order imposed on Trump in his NYC ‘hush money’ case.
This is the second time the Supreme Court declined to intervene and lift the gag order.
