Judge denies Donald Trump's bid to throw out hush money conviction

The case stemmed from a $130,000 payment that Trump's former lawyer Michael Cohen made to adult film actor Stormy Daniels.

Updated on: Dec 17, 2024, 06:45:02 IST

By HT News Desk

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A judge on Monday ruled that Donald Trump's conviction for falsifying records to cover up a sex scandal should stand, rejecting the US president-elect's argument that a recent Supreme Court ruling nullified the verdict, a court filing showed.

FILE PHOTO: Former U.S. President Donald Trump, alongside his attorney Todd Blanche, speaks to the media as he arrives for his criminal trial for allegedly covering up hush money payments at Manhattan Criminal Court (REUTERS)

Trump's lawyers argued that having the case hang over him during his presidency would impede his ability to govern. He was initially scheduled to be sentenced on November 26, but Justice Juan Merchan pushed that back indefinitely after Trump defeated Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris in the November 5 election.

In a 41-page decision, Justice Juan Merchan said Trump's "decidedly personal acts of falsifying business records poses no danger of intrusion on the authority and function of the executive branch."

Trump's lawyer did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Prosecutors with Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg's office, which brought the case, said there were measures short of the "extreme remedy" of overturning the jury's verdict that could assuage Trump's concerns about being distracted by a criminal case while serving as president.

An overview of the case

The case stemmed from a $130,000 payment that Donald Trump's former lawyer Michael Cohen made to adult film actor Stormy Daniels. The payment was for her silence before the 2016 election about a sexual encounter she has said she had a decade earlier with Trump, who denies it.

A Manhattan jury found Trump guilty of 34 counts of falsifying business records to cover up the payment in May this year. It was the first time a US president - former or sitting - had been convicted of or charged with a criminal offense.

Trump pleaded not guilty and called the case an attempt by Bragg, a Democrat, to harm his 2024 campaign.

Trump will be inaugurated as the next US President on January 20, replacing the Democrat incumbent Joe Biden. Biden had defeated Trump in the 2020 elections but dropped out of the race earlier this year to make way for Kamala Harris.

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