Trump seeks to set aside hush money conviction hours after immunity ruling

Donald Trump‘s lawyers have asked the New York judge who presided over his hush money trial to set aside his conviction and delay his sentencing, citing the Supreme Court’s ruling on his immunity.

The letter to Judge Juan M Merchan, seen by the Associated Press, asks for a delay to Trump’s sentencing, scheduled for later this month, and for the judge to weigh up the high court’s decision and how it could influence the New York case.

The letter comes hours after the US Supreme Court ruled that the Republican presidential nominee is partially immune from prosecution for actions taken while he was in the White House.

The decision, which states that the former president is entitled to some degree of immunity from criminal prosecution, significantly reduces the likelihood of another pre-election trial.

The court found that Trump is entitled to claim “absolute immunity” from criminal prosecution for “official acts” taken as president, but is not immune for “unofficial acts”.

Joe Biden slammed the ruling saying the Supreme Court justices had set “a dangerous precedent (that) undermines the rule of this nation.”

Trump’s lawyers argue in the letter that the Supreme Court’s decision confirmed a position the defence raised earlier in the case, that prosecutors should have been precluded from introducing some evidence they said constituted official presidential acts.

In prior court filings, Trump contended he is immune from prosecution for conduct alleged to involve official acts during his tenure in office.

His lawyers did not raise that as a defence in the hush money case, but they argued that some evidence — including Trump’s social media posts about former lawyer Michael Cohen — comes from his time as president and should have been excluded from the trial because of immunity protections.

Trump was convicted in New York of 34 counts of falsifying business records, arising from what prosecutors said was an attempt to cover up a hush money payment just before the 2016 presidential election.

Merchan instituted a policy in the run-up to the trial requiring both sides to send him a one-page letter summarising their arguments before making longer court filings. He said he did that to better manage the docket, so he was not inundated with voluminous paperwork.

With agencies