Manhattan prosecutors on filed paperwork to fight Donald Trump’s most recent push for dismissal of his criminal hush-money case, saying that his position as president-elect does not grant him legal protection.
“This Court should reject defendant’s motion to “immediately” dismiss the indictment and vacate the jury’s guilty verdict based on the outcome of the recent presidential election,” prosecutors wrote in papers filed Monday but made public this afternoon.
“There are no grounds for such relief now, prior to defendant’s inauguration, because President-elect immunity does not exist,” they argued. “And even after the inauguration, defendant’s temporary immunity as the sitting President will still not justify the extreme remedy of discarding the jury’s unanimous guilty verdict and wiping out the already-completed phases of this criminal proceeding.”
The president-elect’s lawyers on 2 December asked Judge Juan Merchan to toss the case, citing Joe Biden’s recent pardon of his son, Hunter Biden, on federal tax and gun charges. Lawyers for Trump, who was found guilty in May of 34 state-level felony counts for falsifying business records, also claimed that an ongoing case would undermine the presidency.
“President Biden asserted that his son was ‘selectively, and unfairly, prosecuted’ and ‘treated differently’,” Trump’s lawyers wrote in their submission. And, they alleged, Manhattan prosecutors had engaged in “precisely the type of political theater that President Biden condemned”.
Trump’s team insisted in their motion last week that Merchan’s failure to throw out the case immediately would get in the way of his governance. They warned of “disruptions to the institution of the presidency” that thwart principles of “the presidential immunity doctrine because they threaten the functioning of the federal government”.
Trump has enjoyed legal wins in his federal criminal cases due to presidential immunity arguments. As US justice department policy bars criminal prosecution of a sitting president, Special Counsel Jack Smith requested dismissal of the Washington DC federal election interference and Florida classified document cases after Trump’s win.
Courts agreed with Smith’s request, putting an end to these federal prosecutions. The US supreme court decided on 1 July that Trump had broad immunity from prosecution for official actions taken while president and even activities falling on the outer perimeter of White House duties.
Trump has repeatedly leaned on this ruling – decided by the 6-3 conservative supermajority that he himself built – in pushing for dismissal of state-level cases. He has also insisted that the US constitution prohibits state-level courts and judges from interfering with official presidential duties.
This ongoing legal wrangling came after Trump’s win over Kamala Harris in the presidential election. Merchan on 22 November agreed to indefinitely postpone Trump’s sentencing so that attorneys on both sides could argue over its future.
Manhattan prosecutors have contended that any concern Trump’s case could impact the presidency could be addressed without dismissal. In prior court papers, they floated the idea of “deferral of all remaining criminal proceedings until after the end of defendant’s upcoming presidential term”.
The New York prosecution of Trump stems from a scheme to prevent adult actress Stormy Daniels from publicly disclosing an alleged sexual liaison with Trump that had unfolded nearly two decades prior. Weeks before the 2016 election, prosecutors said, Trump used his then lawyer Michael Cohen to carry out a $130,000 payoff to Daniels.
Prosecutors said that Trump subsequently created false financial records to repay Cohen, by describing reimbursements as legitimate business expenses for consulting. The prosecution said that Trump carried out this payoff plot to protect his chances in the contest against Democrat Hillary Clinton.