
CNN senior legal analyst Elie Honig suggested Monday that Judge Juan Merchan might vacate President-elect Donald Trumpâs guilty verdict in his New York case due to the Supreme Courtâs presidential immunity ruling.
A jury convictedTrump in May on 34 felony counts of falsifying business records, but Merchan is set to rule Tuesday on a motion to overturn the verdict, according to The Associated Press. Honig, on âCNN News Central,â noted that while âit is rare to see a verdict thrown out,â Merchan may choose to dismiss it based on certain evidence in Trumpâs trial potentially breaching the ruling, which the Supreme Court issued after the verdict.
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âJudge Merchan ⌠is going to issue his ruling on the immunity case. Now, you may be thinking, how could there be immunity? This all related to payments made before Donald Trump was president the first time in 2016,â Honig said. âThe problem, though, from the prosecutorâs point of view, is some of the evidence that they introduced at trial did relate to conversations Trump had while in the White House. Hope Hicks was a key witness about conversations she had when she was communications director.â
âThe immunity decision came out after that trial, but itâs still the law of the land. And Trumpâs team is now saying, âThat evidence should not have been included, therefore Iâm entitled to a new trial.â So we donât know what Judge Merchan is going to do,â he continued. âHe could say, âYes, that evidence should not have been let in, verdict is vacated.â I mean, it is rare â to sort of keep perspective â it is rare to see a verdict thrown out, but it happens. Or he could rule that that evidence was too small a part of the total puzzle and doesnât necessitate a brand new verdict. But thatâs going to be a huge moment tomorrow.â
However, noted attorney Alan Dershowitz said in July that Merchan would âdo everything in his powerâ to uphold Trumpâs conviction.
With Trumpâs election victory, two federal cases against him will be dropped and his state cases most likely will be too, though thereâs a chance ambitious local prosecutors could prolong the battle, the Daily Caller News Foundation reported on Wednesday. Yet Trumpâs risk of prison time has evaporated, even as Merchan is slated to sentence him on Nov. 26.
Even if Merchan sentences Trump to prison, thereâs no chance the president-elect could serve time because âa state cannot interfere with a Presidentâs ability to do his job, which he could not do from prison, and the Secret Service would not be able to guarantee his safety,â John Malcolm, vice president for the Heritage Foundationâs Institute for Constitutional Government and former deputy assistant attorney general in the DOJâs Criminal Division, told the DCNF.
Trumpâs sentencing was originally set for just days before the July Republican National Convention, but the Supreme Courtâs presidential immunity ruling prompted months of delays.
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