Trump asks judge to throw out hush money convictions hours after immunity ruling

Donald Trump has asked the judge in his hush money case to throw out his convictions after a Supreme Court ruling that granted him broad immunity from prosecution for official actions he took as president.

On Monday, lawyers for the former president asked Judge Juan Merchan to set aside Trump’s 34 convictions and delay his sentencing, which is scheduled for later this month.

It comes only hours after the Supreme Court ruled for the first time that former presidents have immunity from prosecution, extending the delay in the federal criminal case against Trump on charges he plotted to overturn his 2020 presidential election loss.

In a letter to Judge Merchan, first reported by The New York Times, Trump’s lawyers argue that the Supreme Court’s decision confirmed a position the defence raised earlier in that federal case that prosecutors should have been precluded from introducing some evidence they said constituted official presidential acts.

In prior court filings, Trump contended he is immune from prosecution for conduct alleged to involve official acts during his tenure in office.

His lawyers did not raise that as a defence in the hush money case, but they argued that some evidence — including Trump’s social media posts about former lawyer Michael Cohen — comes from his time as president and should have been excluded from the trial because of immunity protections.

Trump was convicted in New York of 34 counts of falsifying business records, arising from what prosecutors said was an attempt to cover up a hush money payment just before the 2016 presidential election.

The former president is due to be sentenced on July 11.

Earlier on Monday, Trump welcomed the Supreme Court decision, calling it a “big win for our Constitution and democracy”.

“Today’s historic decision by the Supreme Court should end all of crooked Joe Biden’s witch hunts against me,” he wrote on Truth Social.