Former US President Donald Trump leaves the court after the jury found him guilty of all 34 felonies during his criminal trial in the New York State Supreme Court on May 30, 2024. Records related to payments made to adult film star Stormy Daniels during the 2016 presidential campaign.
Justin Lane | via Reuters
President-elect Donald Trump failed Monday in a New York court to have his hush-money criminal conviction thrown out, citing presidential immunity.
Trump’s lawyers argued that prosecutors used the testimony of former White House employees at the trial and asked Judge Juan Merchant to dismiss the case.
But Merchants wrote in Monday’s ruling: “Even if this court treats all of the disputed evidence, whether withheld or unpreserved, as official acts falling within the power of the defendant President, it would still find that the people are not The conclusion that the use of the evidence as evidence of apparent personal conduct in falsifying business records would not constitute an infringement of the powers and functions of the executive branch was fully supported by evidence unrelated to motive.
“Ultimately, the court concludes that if an error was made in introducing the challenged evidence, such error was harmless given the overwhelming evidence of guilt,” Merchian wrote in his ruling.
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