The News
A New York judge ruled that US President-elect Donald Trump does not have presidential immunity in his New York conviction.
The ruling means Trump’s guilty conviction by a jury that found he had manipulated business records to cover up hush money payments to actress Stormy Daniels in the run-up to the 2016 election stands. Judge Juan Merchan rejected Trump’s lawyers’ argument that a recent Supreme Court ruling expanding presidential immunity meant this conviction should be thrown out.
“The People’s use of these acts as evidence of the decidedly personal acts of falsifying business records poses no danger of intrusion on the authority and function of the executive branch,” Merchan wrote in a 41-page decision, noting the “overwhelming evidence of guilt” at trial.
New York prosecutors had previously said they opposed dismissing the case, but would be open to delaying sentencing or further proceedings until after Trump’s second term in office ends.