A federal appeals court announced on Wednesday it is currently evaluating whether President Donald Trump’s 2024 conviction on 34 felony counts for falsifying business records should be overturned in light of the U.S. Supreme Court’s recent ruling on presidential immunity.
The Hill reports:
The three-judge panel on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit must decide whether to open a path for Trump to attempt to throw out his conviction on 34 counts of falsifying business records by letting him advance his case in a federal forum, instead of New York state courts.
Trump’s gambit was already rejected once, and now he has latched onto the Supreme Court’s decision to try again.
“It seems to me that we got a very big case that created a whole new world of presidential immunity,” said Judge Myrna Pérez, an appointee of former President Biden, “and that the boundaries are not clear at this point.”
Trump argues he is entitled to a federal forum to make his case that the jury’s guilty verdict must be tossed in light of the Supreme Court’s subsequent ruling granting broad criminal immunity to former presidents.
In May 2024, a New York jury found Trump guilty of falsifying business records related to hush money payments made to adult film actress Stormy Daniels during the 2016 presidential campaign. The conviction was based on actions taken before Trump assumed the presidency.
On July 1, 2024, the Supreme Court ruled that former presidents have absolute immunity from criminal prosecution for actions within their core constitutional powers and are entitled to at least presumptive immunity for other official acts. However, there is no immunity for unofficial acts. The Court did not dismiss the indictment against Trump but remanded the case to lower courts to determine which actions were official and which were unofficial.
Following the Supreme Court’s decision, Trump’s legal team argued that certain evidence presented at trial, such as social media posts and communications made during his presidency, should be considered official acts and thus inadmissible. However, in December 2024, Judge Juan Merchan ruled that the conviction would stand, stating that the conduct in question pertained to personal acts and that any disputed evidence was “harmless in light of the overwhelming evidence of guilt.”
Trump’s attorneys appealed the conviction to the Second Circuit Court of Appeals, seeking to have the case moved from New York state court to federal court. They argued that the charges stemmed from actions performed while he was in office and thus fall under presidential immunity. The Manhattan District Attorney’s office opposed the transfer, asserting that the conviction was based on personal conduct not covered by presidential immunity.
The appeals court’s decision could have significant implications for the interpretation of presidential immunity and the extent to which it protects former presidents from prosecution for actions taken during their tenure.
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