Donald Trump’s criminal conviction for falsifying records to disguise a hush money scheme to hide rumors of his affair with porn star Stormy Daniels should not be impacted by the Supreme Court ruling on presidential immunity because the crimes charged “exclusively stem” from his “unofficial acts,” Manhattan prosecutors argued in new court filings Thursday.
Trump’s lawyers earlier this month asked Manhattan Supreme Court Judge Juan Merchan to vacate his conviction and dismiss the underlying indictment in light of the Supreme Court ruling finding that most actions undertaken by presidents in the course of “official acts” are immune from criminal prosecution.
“Contrary to defendant’s arguments, that decision has no bearing on this prosecution and would not support vacatur of the jury’s unanimous verdict (let alone dismissal of the indictment) even if its reasoning did apply here,” Assistant District Attorney Matthew Colangelo wrote.
“The criminal charges here, by contrast, exclusively stem from defendant’s ‘unofficial acts’— conduct for which ‘there is no immunity.’”
A jury found Trump guilty of 34 counts of falsifying New York business records on May 30, marking the first criminal conviction of a U.S. president. The charges stemmed from his reimbursement to Michael Cohen for paying off porn star Stormy Daniels 11 days before the 2016 election to quiet her claims of a sexual tryst a decade prior.
This story will be updated.
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