Trump calls for hush money conviction to be overturned after Supreme Court immunity ruling
2 July 2024, 12:45 | Updated: 2 July 2024, 18:59
Donald Trump’s lawyers have asked for the former president’s conviction in his hush money trial to be overturned and for his sentencing to be delayed.
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On Monday, Mr Trump’s lawyers reportedly sent a letter to the New York Judge presiding over the trial citing the Supreme Court's ruling, which had been issued just hours before.
The Supreme Court ruled that former presidents have broad immunity from prosecution over official actions taken while in office.
The ruling extended the delay in the Washington criminal case against Donald Trump on charges he plotted to overturn his 2020 presidential election loss and all but ended prospects the former president could be tried before the November election.
Mr Trump, who was convicted last month of 34 counts of falsifying business records, is due to be sentenced next week on July 11.
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His lawyers argued that the Supreme Court’s decision confirmed the defence position in the New York case that some prosecution evidence should not have been allowed because this constituted official presidential acts.
His team pointed out that Mr Trump signed off the records while he was still president in 2017 - although one lawyer suggested this was unlikely to be considered an official act.
Last year, the former president’s lawyers also argued that the allegations in the case were within the scope of his presidential duties.
A federal judge, however, wrote that Mr Trump had failed to show his conduct was “for or relating to any act performed by or for the President under [scope] of the official acts of a president”.
The letter is yet to be made public and presiding Judge Merchan has not commented.
On Monday, Mr Trump hailed the ruling as a “victory for democracy”, adding that he was "proud to be an American" after the court's decision.
Despite the 6-3 decision, the court did not say how precisely to apply the ruling, leaving that to the lower courts.
Judges must now decide if Mr Trump was acting in an official or non-official capacity on January 6, when he is accused of encouraging his supporters to storm the Capitol.
The Supreme Court’s decision is unlikely to affect Mr Trump’s conviction, Mark Zauderer an appellate attorney in New York said.
He said: “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.”
Mr Zauderer told the BBC that the former president “will have a most difficult time succeeding with this argument”.
