Judge rejects Trump’s bid to dismiss hush money conviction because of justices’ immunity ruling
LA TimesDonald Trump at Manhattan criminal court in New York in April 2024. A judge Monday rejected President-elect Donald Trump’s bid to have his hush money felony conviction dismissed because of the U.S. Supreme Court’s recent ruling on presidential immunity. Trump’s lawyers then cited the Supreme Court opinion to argue that the jury in the hush money case got some 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. 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.” Prosecutors had said the evidence in question was only “a sliver” of their case. Merchan’s decision noted that part of the Supreme Court’s immunity ruling declared that “not everything the president does is official.” Trump’s social media posts, for example, were personal, Merchan wrote.