US Judge Rules – Trump’s Hush Money Conviction Remains Valid
US President-elect Donald Trump has lost a bid to overturn his hush money conviction after his legal team’s argument that it should be dismissed because of a recent Supreme Court ruling on presidential immunity was rejected by a judge in New York.
Manhattan Judge Juan Merchan’s decision blocks one potential off-ramp from the case ahead of the former and future US president’s return to office on 20 January.
While Trump’s lawyers have put forward arguments for dismissal, their fate is currently unclear.
The case centred on the payment of $130,000 (€124,000) to adult actress Stormy Daniels, who claimed she had sex with Trump in 2006.
The following month, the Supreme Court, which has a 6-3 conservative majority, ruled that presidents cannot be prosecuted for acts taken in office.
Trump’s legal team attempted to use this ruling to quash his hush money conviction, arguing that the jury was presented with improper evidence, including Trump’s presidential financial disclosure form and social media posts he made during his first term in office.
However, Merchan dismissed their claim, saying the charges concerned “decidedly personal acts” and therefore posed “no danger of intrusion on the authority and function of the Executive Branch”.
In a 41-page ruling published on Monday, the judge said that even if prosecutors used evidence that could be challenged by an immunity claim, “such error was harmless in light of the overwhelming evidence of guilt.”
