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Home Featured

Judge Denies Trump’s Presidential Immunity Defense 

by Sandra Rhodes
April 4, 2024 at 9:44 am
in Featured, News
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Judge Denies Trump’s Presidential Immunity Defense 

NEW YORK, NEW YORK - MARCH 25: Former U.S. President Donald Trump appears with his lawyer Susan Necheles for a pre-trial hearing in a hush money case in criminal court on March 25, 2024 in New York City. Trump was charged with 34 counts of falsifying business records last year, which prosecutors say was an effort to hide a potential sex scandal, both before and after the 2016 election. Judge Juan Merchan is expected to set a new start date for the trial after it was delayed following the disclosure of new documents in the case. (Photo by Spencer Platt/Getty Images)

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Former President Donald Trump’s hope of having presidential immunity as a defense were dashed Wednesday as the judge presiding over the case rejected that notion.

Judge Juan Merchan ruled Trump waited too long to bring up the presidential immunity defense and denied Trump’s motion to delay the trial’s start date, NBC News reported.

Trump wanted to stave off his trial until “the U.S. Supreme Court rules on his immunity claims in the federal election interference case in Washington, D.C.,” per the outlet. The Supreme Court is scheduled to hear those arguments April 25.

The presumptive GOP nominee for president also asserted that certain things that happened when he was president, such as tweets and comments, were “official acts” and therefore he should be immune from prosecution.

However, Merchan ruled that Trump should have raised that defense sooner.

“This Court finds that Defendant had myriad opportunities to raise the claim of presidential immunity well before March 7, 2024” but did not, the judge wrote.

Trump wanted to keep out statements he made to former Trump attorney Michael Cohen and adult film star Stormy Daniels.

Merchan said Trump and his attorneys knew the statements made from “the alleged pressure campaign” were going to be used.

“The Defendant had ample notice that the People were in possession of, and intended to use, the various statements allegedly made by Defendant on social media, in public, and in various interviews. He was also well aware that the defense of presidential immunity, even if unsuccessful, might be available to him,” the judge wrote.

The crux of the case is that Trump allegedly falsified business records in order to pay Cohen the money to, in turn pay Daniels hush money towards the end of the 2016 presidential campaign.

Trump has pleaded not guilty.

“Daniels claims she had a sexual encounter with Trump in 2006, an allegation Trump denies,” per the outlet. “Trump publicly blasted both of them in 2018 after Cohen pleaded guilty to related charges.

Trump has sought to use the presidential immunity defense before. He tried the Manhattan district attorney’s case moved to federal court last year.

“The evidence overwhelmingly suggests that the matter was a purely a personal item of the President — a cover-up of an embarrassing event. Hush money paid to an adult film star is not related to a President’s official acts,” U.S. District Judge Alvin Hellerstein wrote in his ruling last summer.

The trial is scheduled to start April 15.

Tags: Donald TrumpMichael Cohenpresidential immunityStormy DanielsU.S. News
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Sandra Rhodes

Sandra Rhodes

IJR, Contributor Writer She was a Story Editor for Indpendent Journal Review since November 2022 and has written for IJR since February 2024. She has been in the newspaper business in various capacities since 1998.

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