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Trump Asks Supreme Court to OVERTURN New York Criminal Case


So Trump, is using the recent Supreme Court decision that says presidents are immune from federal prosecution.

So much for the New York State criminal case big a win for the Democrats.

A letter to the judge handling the case was released on Tuesday, just a day after Supreme Court’s massive decision.

Trump’s lawyers argued that the district attorney shouldn’t have been allowed to use evidence about Trump’s official acts in the trial.

So, let’s see how this one plays out.

But I think we all know how this ends…

Another win for Trump is on the way.

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CBS News reports:

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.

New York Times adds:

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Donald J. Trump began an effort on Monday to throw out his recent criminal conviction in Manhattan and postpone his upcoming sentencing, citing a new Supreme Court ruling that granted him broad immunity from prosecution for official actions he took as president, according to a person with knowledge of the matter.

In a letter to the judge overseeing the case, Mr. Trump’s lawyers sought permission to file a motion to set aside the verdict, doing so just hours after the Supreme Court issued its landmark ruling involving one of Mr. Trump’s other criminal cases. The letter will not be public until Tuesday at the earliest, after which prosecutors will have a chance to respond.

The move from Mr. Trump’s lawyers came 10 days before the judge was set to sentence the former president for his crimes in Manhattan, where a jury convicted him on 34 felony counts related to his cover-up of a sex scandal in the run-up to the 2016 election. Mr. Trump’s lawyers asked the judge, Juan M. Merchan, to postpone the July 11 sentencing while the judge weighs whether the Supreme Court ruling affects the conviction.

The effort to set aside the conviction might be a long shot. The Manhattan case centers on acts Mr. Trump took as a candidate, not a president.

Yet his lawyers are likely to argue that prosecutors built their case partly on evidence from his time in the White House. And under the Supreme Court’s new ruling, prosecutors not only may not charge a president for any official acts, but also cannot cite evidence involving official acts to bolster other accusations.

It is unclear how the Manhattan district attorney’s office, which brought the case, will respond, or whether the judge will delay the first sentencing of an American president. But Mr. Trump’s effort appeared to cause at least a brief interruption: The district attorney’s office did not on Monday make a sentencing recommendation to the judge about whether to imprison Mr. Trump, as was expected.

A spokeswoman for the district attorney’s office declined to comment.

It might be too late for Justice Merchan to revisit the conviction. The deadline for filing post-trial motions was last month, and it is unclear whether the judge will seriously entertain the motion, even in light of the high court’s decision. Instead, he might direct Mr. Trump’s lawyers to raise the issue when they appeal the conviction after he is sentenced.

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It seems like the perfect setup.

Now the Democrats are losing their mind over it.



 

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