Prosecutors from Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s Office filed a motion Tuesday urging a judge to keep President-elect Donald Trump’s hush money conviction in place.
Prosecutors said Trump’s defense team misunderstood the law. Trump still needs presidential immunity protections because such protection is temporary and only exists for official actions taken while in office. Trump’s inauguration is set for Jan. 20, 2025, after he beat Vice President Kamala Harris for a second, nonconsecutive term in the White House.
Trump’s team wants Judge Juan Merchan to immediately dismiss the indictment and vacate the jury’s guilty verdict. Prosecutors said the immunity law doesn’t protect the President-elect.
“There are no grounds for such relief now, prior to defendant’s inauguration, because President-elect immunity does not exist,” prosecutors wrote. “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.”
In late May, a Manhattan jury convicted Trump on all counts in the case. The jury convicted Trump of 34 counts of falsifying business records for disguising hush money payments to an adult film actress as legal costs ahead of the 2016 election. Under New York state law, falsifying business records in the first degree is a Class E felony with a maximum sentence of four years in prison.
Bragg’s office suggested a four-year pause on proceedings in the case.
“At most, defendant should receive temporary accommodations during his presidency to prevent this criminal case from meaningfully interfering with his official decision-making,” prosecutors wrote. “But multiple accommodations well short of dismissal and vacatur would satisfy that objective, including a stay of proceedings during his term in office if judgment has not been entered before presidential immunity attaches.”
Trump wants the case dismissed. His defense attorneys have asked the judge to dismiss the case based on the U.S. Supreme Court’s immunity decision.
In July, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that presidents and former presidents have absolute immunity for actions related to core constitutional powers and presumptive immunity for official actions. The ruling said the president has no immunity for unofficial conduct.
Trump’s defense team says the judge must toss the case.
“Wrongly continuing proceedings in this failed lawfare case disrupts President Trump’s transition efforts and his preparations to wield the full Article II executive power authorized by the Constitution pursuant to the overwhelming national mandate granted to him by the American people on November 5, 2024,” Trump’s attorneys wrote.
They said the Presidential immunity doctrine, the Presidential Transition Act and the Supremacy Clause require the New York hush money case to be tossed immediately.
Prosecutors said the law doesn’t support Trump’s motion to toss the case.
“The vast majority of defendant’s claims involve objections that this Court and others have repeatedly rejected, including defendant’s persistent and baseless attacks on the integrity of this Court and on the People’s conduct during this prosecution,” prosecutors wrote. “Defendant provides no basis whatsoever for this Court to revisit these rewarmed complaints. Instead, the overwhelming evidence of defendant’s guilt and the critical importance of preserving public confidence in the criminal justice system, among many other factors, weigh heavily against dismissal.”
Trump has repeatedly said his political opponents coordinated the criminal cases against him. His attorneys have continued those assertions in court motions.
Federal prosecutors have already moved to end two criminal cases against Trump – the election interference case in Washington D.C. and the classified documents case in Florida.
