Trump seeks to set aside hush money verdict after immunity ruling
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Former US President Donald Trump asks the New York judge who presided over his hush-money trial to set aside his conviction and delay his sentencing, which is scheduled for later this month.
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Republican presidential candidate former President Donald Trump waves to the crowd at a campaign rally in Chesapeake, Va., on June 28, 2024. (AP)
Donald Trump's lawyers requested the New York judge on Monday who oversaw his hush-money trial to overturn his conviction and postpone his sentencing, which is scheduled for later this month.
The letter to Judge Juan M. Merchan referenced the US Supreme Court’s ruling from earlier on Monday and requested a postponement of the former president’s sentencing. Trump's lawyers argued that the judge should consider the Supreme Court's decision and its potential impact on the New York case, according to the letter obtained by the Associated Press.
The lawyers contend that the Supreme Court’s decision supports a position the defense had previously raised in the case, asserting that prosecutors should have been barred from introducing certain evidence they claimed constituted official presidential acts, according to the letter.
Read next: Trump says Americans could reach 'breaking point' if he is jailed
In previous court filings, Trump argued that he is immune from prosecution for conduct alleged to involve official acts during his tenure in office. Although his lawyers did not use this defense in the hush-money case, they maintained that certain evidence—such as Trump’s social media posts about his former lawyer Michael Cohen—originated during his presidency and should have been excluded from the trial due to immunity protections.
On Monday, the Supreme Court ruled for the first time that former presidents have broad immunity from prosecution, which has led to an extended delay in the Washington criminal case against Trump on charges that he plotted to overturn his 2020 presidential election loss.
Trump was convicted in New York on 34 counts of falsifying business records. Prosecutors argued that these charges stemmed from an attempt to cover up a hush-money payment made just before the 2016 presidential election.
Trump requests US Supreme Court to annul guilty verdict
Earlier last month, Trump asked the US Supreme Court to intervene and annul his guilty verdict in the hush money trial that has made him the first former US president to be a convicted felon.
A New York jury found Trump guilty of falsifying documents to conceal a payment made to silence an adult actress Stormy Daniels before the 2016 election.
He voiced his request in a post on his Truth Social account, stressing that the sentencing hearing due July 11 is only four days before his presidential nomination is anticipated to become official at the GOP’s national convention in Milwaukee.
Trump posted, "The ‘Sentencing’ for not having done anything wrong will be, conveniently for the Fascists, 4 days before the Republican National Convention,” adding, “A Radical Left Soros backed D.A., who ran on a platform of ‘I will get Trump,’ reporting to an ‘Acting’ Local Judge, appointed by the Democrats, who is HIGHLY CONFLICTED, will make a decision which will determine the future of our Nation?"
