Trump lawyers invoke immunity ruling in bid to toss hush money verdict

[July 12, 2024]  By Luc Cohen

NEW YORK (Reuters -Donald Trump's lawyers on Thursday said Manhattan prosecutors improperly relied on evidence of the former U.S. president's official acts in securing his conviction on criminal charges stemming from hush money paid to a porn star.

In a court filing dated July 10 but made public on Thursday, defense lawyers said the May 30 guilty verdict in the first-ever criminal trial of a U.S. president should be set aside following the U.S. Supreme Court's ruling on presidential immunity.

They said evidence of official acts that were improperly shown to the jury included Trump's conversations with former White House aide Hope Hicks and some of his Twitter posts while he was in office from 2017 to 2021.

"The use of official-acts evidence was a structural error under the federal Constitution," defense lawyers Todd Blanche and Emil Bove wrote. "The jury's verdicts must be vacated."

Justice Juan Merchan this month delayed Trump's sentencing by two months after defense lawyers said the justices' July 1 ruling that presidents cannot face criminal charges over official acts meant prosecutors should not have shown evidence from Trump's time in the White House at trial.

The Supreme Court's decision said evidence of a president's official acts cannot be used in a prosecution on private matters. Trump's defense lawyers said that meant the Manhattan jury's verdict could not stand.

A spokesperson for Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg's office declined to comment. Prosecutors have until July 24 to respond. They have previously called Trump's arguments meritless but agreed to push back the sentencing.

Legal experts said Trump faces steep odds of getting the hush money conviction overturned, since much of the case involves conduct before his presidency and the evidence from his time in the White House has more to do with private conduct.

The Supreme Court's ruling stemmed from a separate case Trump faces on federal charges involving his efforts to undo his 2020 election loss to Joe Biden. It all but ensured Trump would not face trial in that case before the Nov. 5 election.

Trump's lawyers are also seeking a pause in a third criminal case on charges of mishandling classified documents due to the ruling. Trump has pleaded not guilty to all charges.

Republican presidential candidate and former U.S. President Donald Trump attends a press conference, the day after a guilty verdict in his criminal trial over charges that he falsified business records to conceal money paid to silence porn star Stormy Daniels in 2016, at Trump Tower in New York City, U.S., May 31, 2024. REUTERS/Brendan McDermid/File Photo

'PRESSURE CAMPAIGN'

In the hush money case, Trump was found guilty of falsifying business records to cover up his former lawyer Michael Cohen's $130,000 payment to adult film star Stormy Daniels to remain quiet about a sexual encounter she says she had with Trump. Prosecutors say the payment was designed to boost his presidential campaign in 2016, when he defeated Democrat Hillary Clinton.

Trump denies having had sex with Daniels and has vowed to appeal after his sentencing.

Defense lawyers took issue with the use as evidence of tweets Trump sent in 2018 about Cohen to bolster what prosecutors called a pressure campaign on him to not cooperate with investigations into Trump. Cohen pleaded guilty that year to violating campaign finance law with the payment.

Prosecutors argued those tweets showed Trump was aware that Cohen had paid off Daniels.

But Trump's lawyers said those tweets were official communications, and that using them as evidence in a criminal case set a dangerous precedent.

"Permitting prosecutors to use a President's public statements on matters of public concern in criminal proceedings would chill the President's willingness and ability to communicate with the public," they wrote.

Merchan has said he will decide on Trump's arguments by Sept. 6. If the conviction is upheld, Trump will be sentenced on Sept. 18 - less than seven weeks before the election.

(Reporting by Luc Cohen in New York; Editing by Noeleen Walder and Jamie Freed)

[© 2024 Thomson Reuters. All rights reserved.]This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.  Thompson Reuters is solely responsible for this content.