U.S. Judge Juan Merchan has rejected a motion by U.S. President-elect Donald Trump to overturn his conviction in the case involving hush money payments to adult film star Stormy Daniels.
On Monday, December 16, the judge ruled that Trump’s conviction for concealing payments to Daniels cannot be dismissed based on the Supreme Court’s decision regarding presidential immunity.
Merchan’s decision eliminates one of several legal avenues Trump’s lawyers pursued to overturn the May verdict, in which Trump was found guilty on 34 counts of falsifying business records. However, the judge did not rule on Trump’s lawyers’ broader motion to dismiss the conviction because Trump has already been elected president. Instead, his 41-page ruling focused on the issue of presidential immunity.
Merchan clarified that the Supreme Court’s ruling, which grants Trump broad immunity for official actions during his presidency, does not mean the conviction should be overturned. He determined that the evidence presented by the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office did not relate to Trump’s official conduct while in office.
The evidence challenged by Trump’s lawyers, the judge wrote, concerned “exclusively unofficial conduct” and therefore does not warrant immunity protection.
“The court concludes that if there was an error in presenting the contested evidence, such an error was harmless in light of the overwhelming evidence of guilt,” Merchan stated.
Trump’s spokesperson, Steven Cheung, called Merchan’s decision “a direct violation of the Supreme Court’s immunity ruling and other long-standing legal precedents.”
