Former President Donald Trump has filed a reply brief in his case to have his conviction in N.Y. v Trump overturned after the Supreme Court ruled presidents have some immunity for official acts in office.
Trump was found guilty in an unprecedented criminal trial last month on all counts of falsifying business records in the first degree, following a six-week trial stemming from Bragg’s investigation. Trump has already requested Judge Juan Merchan overturn the verdict.
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In the filing Thursday, lawyers for Trump argued that “The Supreme Court of the United States ruled conclusively and unequivocally that President Trump is protected by immunity for his official acts.”
“In this case, a politically motivated district attorney violated that immunity by using official-acts evidence in grand jury proceedings and at trial. Therefore, the case must be dismissed, and the jury’s verdicts must be vacated.”
The Supreme Court ruled in Trump v. United States that a former president has substantial immunity from prosecution for official acts in office but not for unofficial acts. The high court said Trump is immune from criminal prosecution for “official acts” but left it to the lower court to determine exactly where the line between official and unofficial is.
“The President therefore may not be prosecuted for exercising his core constitutional powers, and he is entitled, at a minimum, to a presumptive immunity from prosecution for all his official acts,” the majority opinion written by Chief Justice John Roberts states. “That immunity applies equally to all occupants of the Oval Office, regardless of politics, policy, or party.”
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The question of presidential immunity stemmed from special counsel Jack Smith’s Jan. 6 case against Trump. Trump pleaded not guilty to those charges. That trial was put on hold in a lower court pending the Supreme Court’s ruling, which wiped out any charges related to official presidential acts.
Trump attorney Todd Blanche, in the filing Thursday, argued that Bragg offered official acts evidence during the six-week-long unprecedented criminal trial. Blanche said that included official White House communications with staffers like Hope Hicks, Madeleine Westerhout, and more.
Blanche also said Trump’s official public statements made via Twitter were used as evidence; his official acts in response to inquiries by the Federal Election Commission; official acts relating to inquiries by Congress and prosecutors; and more.
“President Trump was subjected to fundamentally unfair proceedings that invited jurors to examine official-acts evidence based on ‘their views of the President’s policies and performance while in office,’” Blanche wrote. “This fundamental unfairness also harms the public because of the adverse impact of these violations on the work of future Presidents to serve the American people.”
He added: “For the reasons set forth in the Defense Motion and herein, the Court should dismiss the Indictment and vacate the jury’s verdicts based on violations of the Presidential immunity doctrine and the Supremacy Clause.”
Judge Juan Merchan, last month, agreed to Trump’s request to delay his original sentencing date, July 11, and said that a hearing on Trump’s potential sentencing would take place Sept. 18.
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