Special Poll
A New York judge has affirmed the conviction of President-elect Donald Trump as a felon, despite a recent Supreme Court decision addressing presidential immunity. The ruling confirmed that the jury’s decision in the hush money case is valid under the Supreme Court’s criteria for presidential immunity.
This judicial decision followed Trump’s electoral win over Vice President Harris, demonstrating that legal challenges did not deter voters from returning him to the Oval Office.
The judge is yet to decide on Trump’s request to dismiss the case now that he has been elected president. Trump’s legal team argued that the evidence used in his seven-week trial was shielded by the Supreme Court’s rulings on presidential immunity, which protect former presidents from being prosecuted for actions taken while exercising official presidential powers. However, the Supreme Court clarified that while unofficial actions might be prosecutable, the motives behind any presidential decisions remain unexamined by juries.
Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg (D) has pushed back against these immunity defenses, maintaining that the evidence presented at trial was not protected and was minor compared to the substantial proof of Trump’s wrongdoing.
Trump was found guilty on 34 counts of falsifying business records related to a $130,000 payment made to adult film actress Stormy Daniels before the 2016 election, intended to keep an alleged affair out of the public eye, which he has denied. The district attorney’s office argued that this act was part of a deliberate attempt to illegally sway the election results.