Judge dismisses Trump bid to throw out New York conviction

Juan Merchan says trial testimony relates entirely to unofficial conduct not entitled to presidential immunity protection

Donald Trump attends his New York trial on April 23. AP

US president-elect Donald Trump does not have immunity from prosecution in the hush-money case that resulted in his conviction on falsifying business records, Judge Juan Merchan ruled on Monday night.

Mr Trump's lawyers argued that having the case hang over him during his presidency would impede his ability to govern, and that that the use by prosecutors of testimony from former White House employees at his trial required Mr Merchan to toss out the case. But he said that the testimony at the trial relates “entirely to unofficial conduct entitled to no immunity protections”.

Prosecutors with Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg's office, which brought the case, said there were measures short of the "extreme remedy" of overturning the jury's verdict that could assuage Mr Trump's concerns about being distracted by a criminal case while serving as president.

Mr Merchan said in his decision: “Even if this court were to deem all of the contested evidence, both preserved and unpreserved, as official conduct falling within the outer perimeter of the defendant’s presidential authority, it would still find that the people’s use of these acts as evidence of the decidedly personal acts of falsifying business records poses no danger of intrusion on the authority and function of the executive branch, a conclusion amply supported by non-motive-related evidence."

The judge’s ruling preserves Mr Trump’s criminal conviction, making it possible that he may become the first felon to serve as president.

In May, a New York jury found Mr Trump guilty on all 34 counts of falsifying business records to cover up payments made to an adult film star during the 2016 presidential election.

Mr Merchan has delayed sentencing in the case, but the maximum sentence for such crimes is four years in prison. It is unlikely, however, that he would be sentenced to jail.

The Supreme Court ruled in July that Mr Trump cannot be prosecuted for official actions taken as president, but that he can be prosecuted for private acts. One liberal justice who dissented said the ruling effectively ensured that a president “is now a king above the law”.

Mr Trump was previously facing a series of cases against him, among them election subversion and mishandling of classified documents charges. But the election subversion charge was dismissed in Washington in late November after US special counsel Jack Smith requested that it be dropped before the president-elect's January 20 inauguration.

Mr Smith also asked a Florida court to dismiss the federal case against Mr Trump on accusations of illegally possessing classified documents after his presidency ended in 2021.