A court in the US denied to throw out Donald Trump’s hush money conviction, saying that the US President-elect’s felony conviction should not be tossed out because of the Supreme Court’s ruling on the presidential immunity.
The decision of Manhattan Judge Juan M Merchan, on Monday, blocks one potential off-ramp from the hush money case ahead of Trump’s inauguration on January 20, 2025.
Also, Merchan’s decision comes barely a month after Trump’s victory against Vice President Kamala Harris in the 2024 US Presidential election, showing voters choosing to bring him back to the White House despite his years of legal peril.
Prosecutors have said that there should be some accommodation for Trump’s upcoming presidency, buy they insist the conviction should stand.
Merchan’s decision rejected one of the many avenues which Trump’s lawyers have taken to try to dismiss his May guilty verdict on 34 counts of falsifying business records related to a $130,000 hush money payment to porn actor Stormy Daniels in 2016. Trump denies wrongdoing.
Merchan did not rule on a motion from Trump’s attorneys to dismiss the conviction because he has now been elected president, instead, the judge’s 41-page decision focused on the question of presidential immunity.
Merchan wrote the ruling of the Supreme Court that Trump should receive broad immunity for official acts during his time in office did not mean the conviction should be dismissed, ruling that the evidence presented by the Manhattan district attorney’s office was not related to Trump’s official conduct as president.
Merchan further wrote that the evidence contested by Trump’s lawyers, related “entirely to unofficial conduct” and should receive no immunity protections.
Content retrieved from: https://www.firstpost.com/world/setback-for-trump-us-court-rejects-his-bid-to-throw-out-hush-money-conviction-13845065.html.
