Prosecutors will recommend to a judge Tuesday whether to vacate President-elect Donald Trump’s conviction in the hush money case, citing the U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling on presidential immunity.
Juan M. Marchan, the New York judge who presided over Mr. Trump’s historic trial, is scheduled to decide last week whether to throw out the jury’s verdict and order a new trial or dismiss the charges altogether. Ta. The judge’s ruling is also expected to influence whether the former and current and future commander-in-chief will be sentenced as scheduled on November 26.
Trump’s team is asking for the lawsuit to be dismissed. Prosecutors said they needed time to consider their next steps. According to communications between the parties, the court granted them one week to take their positions.
“Accordingly, to give the public time to assess these recent developments, we urge the public to postpone future dates and set a deadline of 2024 for the public to advise the court on our views on the appropriate course of action. “We respectfully request the court to set the deadline for November 19th,” the document said.
The defense had also asked for a delay, according to court documents.
Trump regained the White House two weeks ago, but the legal issues concern his status as a past president, not his immediate presidency.
A jury found Trump guilty in May of falsifying business records related to a $130,000 payment to porn star Stormy Daniels in 2016. The reward was to buy her silence over allegations that she had a sexual relationship with Mr. Trump.
He insists he never did so, denies any wrongdoing and claims the charges were a political tactic intended to damage his latest campaign.
Just over a month after the ruling, the Supreme Court ruled that former presidents cannot be prosecuted for acts they committed in the course of running the nation’s affairs, and that prosecutors are not allowed to use such charges to strengthen cases that are centered on purely personal matters. The court ruled that the act could not be cited. act.
The U.S. Supreme Court ruled Monday that former President Donald Trump enjoys certain immunity from prosecution for his actions while in office. News 4’s Gus Rosendale reviews the decision.
Mr. Trump’s lawyers cited the ruling to argue that the hush money jury obtained evidence they shouldn’t have, including Mr. Trump’s presidential financial disclosure forms and testimony from some White House aides.
Prosecutors disagreed, saying the evidence in question was only “a small part” of the case.
Trump’s criminal conviction was the first for a former president. The incident could result in the 78-year-old being sentenced to anything from a fine or suspended sentence to up to four years in prison.
The case centered on how Mr. Trump reimbursed his personal lawyer for payments made to Mr. Daniels.
Attorney Michael Cohen took over the funding. He later got it back through a series of payments that Trump’s company recorded as legal costs. Trump was in the White House by then and signed most of the checks himself.
Prosecutors said the designation was intended to obscure the true purpose of the payments and to help cover up a broader effort to keep voters from hearing unflattering claims about the Republican Party during the first campaign. He said that.
Trump said Cohen was legally compensated for his legal services and that Daniels’ story should not be used to embarrass Trump’s family or influence voters. He said it was hidden because of this.
When Mr. Cohen paid Mr. Daniels in October 2016, Mr. Trump was a private citizen who was campaigning for president but had not been elected or sworn in. Mr. Trump was president when Mr. Cohen was repaid, and Mr. Cohen testified that he discussed the repayment arrangement in the Oval Office.
Mr. Trump has been fighting for months to overturn the ruling and may now try to leverage his position as president-elect. He was tried as a private citizen, but a future return to the White House could avoid the unprecedented spectacle of courts intervening and sentencing former and future presidents.
President Trump is urging Marchand to vacate his conviction, while seeking to move the case to federal court. Before the election, federal judges repeatedly said no to the move, but Trump appealed.
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