Donald Trump’s lawyers on Thursday said Manhattan prosecutors improperly relied on evidence of the former U.S. president’s official acts in securing his conviction on criminal charges stemming from hush money paid to a porn star.
In a court filing dated July 10 but made public on Thursday, defense lawyers said the guilty verdict should be set aside following the U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling on presidential immunity.
They said evidence of official acts that were improperly shown to the jury included Trump’s conversations with former White House aide Hope Hicks and some of his Twitter posts while he was in office.
“The use of official-acts evidence was a structural error under the federal Constitution,” defense lawyers Todd Blanche and Emil Bove wrote. “The jury’s verdicts must be vacated.”
Justice Juan Merchan this month delayed Trump’s sentencing by two months after defense lawyers said the justices’ July 1 ruling that presidents cannot face criminal charges over official acts meant prosecutors should not have shown evidence from Trump’s time in the White House at trial.
They said that meant the Manhattan jury’s May 30 guilty verdict in the first-ever criminal trial of a U.S. president could not stand.
Prosecutors with Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s office have until July 24 to respond. They have previously called Trump’s arguments meritless but agreed to push back the sentencing.
Legal experts said Trump faces steep odds of getting the hush money conviction overturned because much of the case involves conduct before his presidency and the evidence from his time in the White House has more to do with private conduct.
The Supreme Court’s ruling stemmed from a separate case Trump faces on federal charges involving his efforts to undo his 2020 election loss to Joe Biden. It all but ensured Trump would not face trial in that case before the November 5 election.
Trump’s lawyers are also seeking a pause in a third criminal case on charges of mishandling classified documents because of the ruling. Trump has pleaded not guilty to all charges.
In the hush money case, Trump was found guilty of falsifying business records to cover up his former lawyer’s $130,000 payment to adult film star Stormy Daniels to remain quiet about a sexual encounter she says she had with Trump. Prosecutors say the payment was designed to boost his presidential campaign in 2016, when he defeated Democrat Hillary Clinton.
The Supreme Court’s decision said evidence of a president’s official acts cannot be used in a prosecution on private matters.
Merchan has said he will decide on Trump’s arguments by September 6. If the conviction is upheld, Trump will be sentenced on September 18, less than seven weeks before the election.
