From CNN:
Donald Trump’s felony conviction in the New York hush money case should not be tossed out because of the Supreme Court’s ruling on presidential immunity, Judge Juan Merchan ruled Monday.
Merchan’s decision rejected one of several avenues that Trump’s lawyers have taken to try to dismiss Trump’s May guilty verdict on 34 counts of falsifying business records. The judge did not, however, rule on a motion from Trump’s attorneys to dismiss the conviction because Trump has now been elected president.
Instead, his 41-page decision focused on the question of presidential immunity.
Merchan wrote the Supreme Court’s ruling that Trump should receive broad immunity for official acts during his time in office did not mean the conviction should be dismissed, ruling that the evidence presented by the Manhattan district attorney’s office was not related to Trump’s official conduct as president.
The evidence contested by Trump’s lawyers, the judge wrote, related “entirely to unofficial conduct” and should receive no immunity protections.
“This Court concludes that if an error occurred regarding the introduction of the challenged evidence, such error was harmless in light of the overwhelming evidence of guilt,” Merchan wrote. “Even if this Court did find that the disputed evidence constitutes official acts under the auspices of the Trump decision, which it does not, Defendant’s motion is still denied as an introduction of the disputed evidence constitutes harmless error and no mode of proceedings error has taken place.”
I would be jumping about with joy, but that’s not the facts.
I just hope that something will come out of this since the case could be tied up for literally years. May it come back to bite him in the ass, no matter when that is. I believe, (correct me if I’m wrong) that presidential immunity is based on acts as President, and this was not an official act, but an act as a private citizen. And let us not forget that this was decided by a jury, not by one solo person.
We shall see.
No rant this time. Those are feelings, not facts. My apologies.
