Current:Home > FinanceTrump seeks to overturn criminal conviction, citing Supreme Court immunity decision -PrimeFinance
Trump seeks to overturn criminal conviction, citing Supreme Court immunity decision
View
Date:2025-04-17 11:42:50
Donald Trump is trying to leverage a Supreme Court decision holding that presidents are immune from federal prosecution for official actions to overturn his conviction in a New York State criminal case.
A letter to the judge presiding over the New York case was made public on Tuesday. It was filed Monday after the Supreme Court's landmark holding further slowed the former president's criminal cases.
"[T]he Trump decision confirmed the defense position that [the district attorney] should not have been permitted to offer evidence at trial of President Trump's official acts," Trump attorneys Todd Blanche and Emil Bove wrote.
"The verdicts in this case violate the presidential immunity doctrine and create grave risks of 'an Executive Branch that cannibalizes itself,'" the wrote, quoting from the Supreme Court's decision. "After further briefing on these issues beginning on July 10, 2024, it will be manifest that the trial result cannot stand."
Lawyers from Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg's office responded in a letter of their own on Tuesday, telling the judge they disagreed with the Trump attorneys' argument but did not oppose delaying Trump's July 11 sentencing date. They asked for a deadline of July 24 to respond to the defense's motion.
Trump's criminal case in New York is the only one of four against him to go to trial. On May 30, a unanimous jury concluded Trump was guilty of 34 felony counts of falsifying business records in an effort to cover up reimbursements for a "hush money" payment to an adult film star. Trump signed off on falsifying the records while he was in the White House in 2017.
Monday's Supreme Court decision extended broad immunity from criminal prosecutions to former presidents for their official conduct. But the issue of whether Trump was engaged in official acts has already been litigated in his New York case.
Trump sought in 2023 to move the case from state to federal jurisdiction. His lawyers argued that the allegations involved official acts within the color of his presidential duties.
That argument was rejected by a federal judge who wrote that Trump failed to show that his conduct was "for or relating to any act performed by or for the President under color of the official acts of a president."
"The evidence overwhelmingly suggests that the matter was purely a personal item of the president — a cover-up of an embarrassing event," U.S. District Judge Alvin Hellerstein wrote. "Hush money paid to an adult film star is not related to a president's official acts. It does not reflect in any way the color of the president's official duties."
Trump initially appealed that decision, but later dropped it.
His case went to trial in April, and soon after the jury's unanimous decision finding him guilty, Trump vowed to appeal the conviction.
- In:
- Supreme Court of the United States
- Donald Trump
Graham Kates is an investigative reporter covering criminal justice, privacy issues and information security for CBS News Digital. Contact Graham at KatesG@cbsnews.com or grahamkates@protonmail.com
veryGood! (58814)
Related
- Moving abroad can be expensive: These 5 countries will 'pay' you to move there
- Watchdogs worry a Nebraska Supreme Court ruling could lead to high fees for open records
- The Daily Money: Do you hoard credit-card perks?
- Law enforcement should have seized man’s guns weeks before he killed 18 in Maine, report finds
- Sam Taylor
- Squid Game Star O Yeong-su Found Guilty of Sexual Misconduct
- 'Giant hybrid sheep' created on Montana ranch could bring prison time for 80-year-old breeder
- Aaron Donald and his 'superpowers' changed the NFL landscape forever
- Federal appeals court upholds $14.25 million fine against Exxon for pollution in Texas
- U.S. measles milestone: 59 cases so far in 2024 — more than all of 2023
Ranking
- Federal hiring is about to get the Trump treatment
- US to investigate Texas fatal crash that may have involved Ford partially automated driving system
- Boeing plane found to have missing panel after flight from California to southern Oregon
- NASA gave Voyager 1 a 'poke' amid communication woes. Here's why the response was encouraging.
- Are Instagram, Facebook and WhatsApp down? Meta says most issues resolved after outages
- After dangerous tornadoes in Ohio and Indiana, survivors salvage, reflect and prepare for recovery
- Boeing plane found to have missing panel after flight from California to southern Oregon
- California man sentenced to life for ‘boogaloo movement’ killing of federal security guard
Recommendation
Mets have visions of grandeur, and a dynasty, with Juan Soto as major catalyst
Watch as staff at Virginia wildlife center dress up as a fox to feed orphaned kit
22 artifacts looted after the Battle of Okinawa returned to Japan
First male top-tier professional soccer player to come out as gay proposes to partner on home pitch
New data highlights 'achievement gap' for students in the US
David Viviano, a conservative Michigan Supreme Court justice, won’t seek reelection
Blake Lively Seemingly Trolls Kate Middleton Over Photoshop Fail
Arizona legislation to better regulate rehab programs targeted by Medicaid scams is moving forward