Former President Donald Trump called for Judge Juan Merchan, who oversaw his Manhattan business records trial, to toss his guilty verdict in light of the Supreme Court’s presidential immunity ruling.
The Supreme Court, in a 6-3 decision, ruled on Monday that presidents are covered by limited immunity from criminal prosecutions for official acts taken while in office, however, they do not have immunity for unofficial acts.
In the Supreme Court’s decision, the court held:
Under our constitutional structure of separated powers, the nature of Presidential power entitles a former President to absolute immunity from criminal prosecution for actions within his conclusive and preclusive constitutional authority. And he is entitled to at least presumptive immunity from prosecution for all his official acts. There is no immunity for unofficial acts.
In a letter addressed to Merchan, Trump’s lawyers “sought permission to file a motion” to overturn the guilty verdict, according to the New York Times. At the end of May, a Manhattan jury found Trump guilty of 34 counts of falsifying business records in the first-degree related to payments made to adult entertainment actress Stormy Daniels during the 2016 presidential election.
Lawyers for the former president have also reportedly asked Merchan to “postpone” Trump’s sentencing, as Merchan takes into consideration if the immunity decision from the Supreme Court has affected Trump’s guilty verdict, according to the outlet.
Trump is scheduled to be sentenced on July 11, four days before the Republican National Convention begins on July 15.
The outlet notes that while the request to have the conviction overturned may be “a long shot,” Trump’s lawyers “are likely to argue that prosecutors built their case partly on evidence from his time in the White House”:
The effort to set aside the conviction might be a long shot. The Manhattan case centers on acts Mr. Trump took as a candidate, not a president.
Yet his lawyers are likely to argue that prosecutors built their case partly on evidence from his time in the White House. And under the Supreme Court’s new ruling, prosecutors not only may not charge a president for any official acts, but also cannot cite evidence involving official acts to bolster other accusations.
In response to the Supreme Court’s ruling on presidential immunity, Democrats suggested that, if reelected, Trump legally could go after his political opponents.
As Breitbart News reported:
In arguing that Trump — or any other president — could pursue his opponents legally, Democrats appeared to concede that Biden had been doing so illegally, at least according to the Supreme Court, which also ruled last week that prosecutors had abused a federal statute to pursue some participants in the Capitol riot of January 6, 2021.
Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) responded to the Supreme Court’s ruling by stating she was planning to file articles of impeachment against unnamed justices on the court.