Trump ineligible for immunity in New York hush money case, judge rules

The New York judge in President-elect Donald Trump’s criminal hush-money case ruled on Monday that the Supreme Court’s decision on presidential immunity does not apply to the case.

Trump had sought to have his indictment dismissed and the jury’s verdict overturned on the grounds that prosecutors introduced evidence of Trump’s official acts as president during the trial last May, after the Supreme Court later ruled in July that Trump is entitled to presumptive immunity from prosecution for official acts performed while in office.

But Judge Juan Merchan said on Monday that the evidence in Trump’s hush-money case “relates entirely to unofficial conduct” and “poses no danger of intruding on the authority and function of the executive branch”: Trump’s lawyers seeking dismissal of hush money case slam prosecutor for ‘heavy-handed tactics’
Trump was found guilty in May on 34 felony counts of falsifying business records related to a hush money payment made to adult film actress Stormy Daniels to boost his electoral prospects in the 2016 presidential election. Judge Merchan has not yet issued a sentence.

In his ruling on Monday, Merchan found that there was “overwhelming evidence of guilt” that led the jury to convict Trump at trial.

Trump’s lawyers, arguing for immunity, had emphasised the importance of former White House communications director Hope Hicks’ testimony, including her recounting of interactions with Trump in 2018 when reports of the alleged hush money payment to Stormy Daniels broke, to show Trump’s knowledge of the payment and his preference that the story come out after the election.

Defence lawyers used a similar argument to argue that Trump’s tweets – which prosecutors used to show an alleged “pressure campaign” to prevent Trump’s former lawyer, Michael Cohen, from cooperating with authorities in 2018 – were official communications protected by immunity because the posts “fall well within the core authority of the nation’s chief executive.”