Donald Trump seeks to toss New York hush money conviction hours after Supreme Court ruling
NEW YORK -- Hours after the U.S. Supreme Court issued its landmark ruling about presidential immunity, former President Donald Trump on Monday evening sought to throw out his conviction in New York.
Trump's lawyers said the verdict should be tossed because the jury saw evidence during the trial that they believe should have been protected by presidential immunity, according to a letter to Judge Juan Merchan, described by sources to ABC News.
The defense sought additional time to make their argument, a move that could delay Trump's sentencing, which is currently scheduled for July 11.
There was no comment from Trump's legal team. The Manhattan district attorney's office declined to comment.
A jury took less than 10 hours to convict Trump of 34 felony counts of falsifying business records about a hush payment to porn actress Stormy Daniels. Trump's then-lawyer, Michael Cohen, wired Daniels $130,000 and Trump reimbursed him in monthly installments disguised as routine legal expenses.
Trump's defense team previously invoked a presidential immunity argument in an unsuccessful effort to limit evidence and attempt to delay the trial.
In March, defense lawyers sought to exclude a government ethics form that disclosed Trump's reimbursement to Cohen as well as a series of tweets from 2018 that prosecutors alleged were part of a "pressure campaign" against Cohen.
"Under these appropriate standards, President Trump's social media posts and public statements while acting as President and viewed in context fell within the outer perimeter of his Presidential duty, to which communicating with the public on matters of public concern was central," Trump's lawyers wrote in the March motion that the judge rejected the motion ahead of trial.
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