The judge at Donald Trump’s trial in New York for hidden payments to porn actress Stormy Daniels on Monday rejected his appeal to overturn his conviction on the basis of presidential immunity, American media report.
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Donald Trump’s lawyers invoked the presumption of criminal immunity recognized on July 1 for the President of the United States by the Supreme Court to request the annulment of the judgment rendered against him on May 30.
He was convicted in that case of “aggravated accounting falsification to conceal a conspiracy to pervert the 2016 election,” but his sentencing was postponed several times.
Judge Juan Merchan concluded that the acts in question had no official character and were therefore not covered by presidential immunity, specify in particular the New York Times and CNN.
But following his victory in the November 5 vote, Donald Trump’s lawyers presented a new appeal, invoking his status as elected president, incompatible according to them with the verdict.
Judge Merchan sought submissions from both parties on the matter earlier this month, but has not yet ruled on the appeal.
The case concerns hidden payments of $130,000, before the 2016 presidential election, to a pornographic film actress, Stormy Daniels, so that she would keep quiet about a sexual encounter ten years earlier. A relationship that Mr. Trump has always denied.
Of the four criminal proceedings targeting Donald Trump, this case is the only one in which a trial was held for the candidate in the presidential election which he won, an unprecedented scenario in American history.
World
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