Donald Trump filed to vacate his historic Manhattan conviction on Thursday — the day he was previously scheduled to be sentenced — citing the recent Supreme Court ruling granting broad immunity from prosecution to presidents.
In the partially-redacted motion filed in Manhattan Supreme Court, Trump lawyer Todd Blanche said state Supreme Court Justice Juan Merchan was “duty-bound” to undo Trump’s conviction in light of the ruling and argued no president had been treated as “unfairly and unlawfully” as his client. He also accused Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg of participating in “one-sided lawfare.”
“Like Special Counsel Jack Smith, (Bragg) insisted on proceeding on a ‘highly expedited basis’ as part of the election-interference mission driven by President Biden and his associates,” Blanche wrote, echoing a frequent Trump refrain.
“Rather than wait for the Supreme Court’s guidance, the prosecutors scoffed with hubris at President Trump’s immunity motions and insisted on rushing to trial,” Blanche added.
In a major 6-3 decision, the Supreme Court on July 1 significantly pared down the federal election subversion case Trump faces in Washington, D.C., in finding that most actions undertaken by presidents in the course of “official acts” are immune from criminal prosecution.
The ruling effectively killed any chance of Trump facing trial over the Jan. 6, 2021 siege of the U.S. Capitol before the November election and nearly fully shielded presidents from criminal liability. It also impeded prosecutors from presenting evidence of presidential acts in cases concerning a president’s unofficial acts.
A jury on May 30 found Trump guilty of falsifying New York business records in 2017, when he reimbursed his former lawyer Michael Cohen for paying hush money to porn star Stormy Daniels to hide her claims of a sordid sexual encounter a decade prior, marking the first criminal conviction of a U.S. president.
Prosecutors bumped the records charges up to felonies in alleging that Trump hid his reimbursement to Cohen to disguise a scheme that began in 2015 to hide information from voters that could negatively affect their feelings about him in the 2016 presidential election.
Blanche’s new motion argues that the immunity ruling means any evidence presented to the jury concerning Trump’s “official acts in 2017 and 2018” was impermissible.
“(N)ational security matters such as use of Air Force One and Marine One as well as secure calls in the White House Situation Room; allegations of conversations regarding the pardon power; and official communications by President Trump using a Twitter account that has been recognized as a formal channel of White House communication in the Trump Administration” were listed among examples of evidence Blanche argued was out-of-bounds.
He also cited as examples testimony by Trump’s campaign manager and then White House communications director, Hope Hicks, and his White House executive assistant, Madeleine Westerhout, who testified about how Trump received mail and his penchant for using a Sharpie and handling paperwork just outside the Oval Office to keep the Resolute Desk clean. Hicks testified about Trump acknowledging the reimbursement to Cohen in 2018, when it was reported in detail, and remarking that it would have been worse had it hit the headlines before the election.
At trial, Trump argued that actions he undertook to bury allegations of sexual promiscuity were to protect his marriage and reputation, not win the election. Evidence showed the payoff to Daniels was made 11 days before the 2016 election, and Cohen was reimbursed after Trump took office.
Merchan granted Trump a request to delay his sentencing in the wake of the Supreme Court ruling, rescheduling it for Sept. 18 if it’s “still necessary.” Prosecutors must reply to Trump’s motion by July 24 and Merchan said he would rule on it by Sept. 6. Trump has said he intends to appeal his conviction after his sentencing, when he could face up to four years in prison.
Trump’s motion to undo the jury’s verdict comes days out from the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee, where he’s slated to officially become the party’s nominee, and as President Biden has been trying to revive his own campaign in the wake of his widely panned June 27 debate performance.
