NEW YORK– A judge rejected that on Monday President-elect Donald Trump attempt to have his hush money conviction dismissed due to the recent U.S. Supreme Court ruling on presidential immunity. But the overall future of the case remains unclear.
The decision by Manhattan Judge Juan M. Merchan eliminates a possible exit from the case ahead of Trump’s return next month, but his lawyers have made other arguments for dismissal.
Prosecutors have said there needs to be some adjustment for his upcoming presidency, but they are pushing for the conviction to stand.
A jury convicted Trump in May of 34 counts of falsifying company records in connection with a $130,000 hush-money payment to porn actor Stormy Daniels in 2016. Trump denies wrongdoing.
The allegations involved a scheme to… pay hush money to porn actor Stormy Daniels during the final days of Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign to silence her claims that they had sex years earlier, which he denies.
A month after the ruling, the The Supreme Court ruled that ex-presidents cannot be prosecuted for official actions – things they did while governing the country – and that prosecutors cannot cite these actions in support of a case that is purely about personal, unofficial conduct.
In Monday’s ruling, Merchan denied most of Trump’s claims that some of the prosecutors’ evidence was related to official actions and thus implied immunity protection.
The judge said that even if he found some evidence related to official conduct, he would still find that prosecutors’ decision to “use these acts as evidence of the decidedly personal acts of falsifying corporate documents, does not constitute a danger of infringing on the authority and function of the executive power.”
Trump’s lawyers cited the ruling allege that the hush money jury received improper evidence, such as Trump’s presidential financial disclosure form, testimony from some White House aides and social media posts made while he was in office.
Prosecutors disagreed and said the evidence in question was only “a piece” of their case.
Trump takes office on January 20.
Trump communications director Steven Cheung on Monday called Merchan’s decision a “direct violation of the Supreme Court’s decision on immunity and other long-standing case law.”
“This lawless case should never have been brought, and the constitution demands that it be dismissed immediately,” Cheung said in a statement.