In light of a recent Supreme Court decision, Donald Trump’s attorneys are attempting to overturn his conviction, therefore a New York court has scheduled his sentencing for September.
The original date of Trump’s sentencing was July 11. However, when the country’s top court decided on Monday that previous presidents had some immunity for “official” activities during their term, his legal team asked that his conviction in a hush-money case be annulled.
On Tuesday, Justice Juan Merchan stated that he will rule on the requests by September 6. The judge wrote that if sentencing is required, it will happen on September 18.
As the first former president to be found guilty of a felony, Trump was found guilty in May of 34 charges of falsifying company records by a jury in New York. According to the prosecution, Trump paid back his fixer, Michael Cohen, hush money to a porn star who stated she had an affair with him. The funds were disguising themselves as lawful expenditures in order to conceal them from view on election night in 2016. Out of Trump’s four criminal cases, this is the first one to go to trial.
Not long after Justice Merchan’s decision, Trump claimed in a post on Truth Social that the postponement was “TOTAL EXONERATION!” and that it “ends” the “witch hunts against me.” But the ruling does little more than put the procedures on hold until the judge makes his decision.
The Supreme Court handed down a stunning decision on Monday, holding that Trump and other former presidents were immune from prosecution for their “official acts.” The challenge sprang from a federal criminal case in which Trump was accused of attempting to rig the 2020 election results; nevertheless, it may have ramifications for other legal disputes he faces.
Trump’s attorneys in the New York case moved swiftly to reverse the May conviction in an attempt to take advantage of the Supreme Court’s ruling. They contended that because some of the case’s key evidence and events occurred while Trump was president, the Supreme Court’s decision is pertinent.
Trump’s legal team, the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office, retorted that his claim was “without merit” but gave him until July 24 to answer.
Legal experts, however, stated that Trump might have an uphill struggle in this challenge.
“The allegations in the New York fraud case in which Trump was convicted seem clearly to relate to unofficial conduct by Trump, none of which would seem to involve his official duties,” said Mark Zauderer, a New York appellate. “While Trump will be able to litigate his immunity defense in some of his cases, he will have a most difficult time succeeding with this argument in the New York case.”
Prosecutors established that Cohen paid adult film actress Stormy Daniels $130,000 to keep quiet about a fictitious 2006 sexual encounter with Trump at Trump’s request. The money was transferred when Trump was still running for the presidency. Subsequently, beginning in early 2017, Trump paid Cohen back in several payments while fabricating them as legal fees.
Constitutional law expert Philip Bobbitt noted that persuading a judge that this conduct qualifies as “official” presidential acts would prove challenging. To put it plainly, “I just don’t see it,” he told the BBC.
