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Judge to rule on whether to scrap Trump's conviction in hush money case

Judge to rule on whether to scrap Trump's conviction in hush money case


Judge to rule on whether to scrap Trump's conviction in hush money case

NEW YORK — A judge is due to decide Tuesday whether to undo President-elect Donald Trump’s conviction in his hush money case because of a U.S. Supreme Court ruling on presidential immunity.

New York Judge Juan M. Merchan, who presided over Trump's historic trial, is now tasked with deciding whether to toss out the jury verdict and order a new trial — or even dismiss the charges altogether. The judge's ruling also could speak to whether the former and now future commander-in-chief will be sentenced as scheduled Nov. 26.

The Republican won back the White House a week ago but the legal question concerns his status as a past president, not an impending one.

A jury convicted Trump in May of falsifying business records related to a $130,000 payment to porn actor Stormy Daniels in 2016. The payout was to buy her silence about claims that she had sex with Trump.

He says they didn’t, denies any wrongdoing and maintains the prosecution was a political tactic meant to harm his latest campaign.

Just over a month after the verdict, the Supreme Court ruled that ex-presidents can’t be prosecuted for actions they took in the course of running the country, and prosecutors can’t cite those actions even to bolster a case centered on purely personal conduct.