judge who presided over the elected president Donald Trump's criminal trialJuan Marchan is expected to issue a ruling Tuesday that either overturns the case or puts Trump on a collision course with sentencing.
The long-awaited decision on whether evidence shown at trial should have been protected from jurors because of presidential immunity could have serious consequences for the case.
Trump was the first former president ever convicted of crimesOn November 5 he also became first person with a criminal record Someday the President has to be elected.
Trump's lawyers took oath for one day A unanimous jury found him guilty Pleaded guilty to felony murder in May to fight his conviction. Shortly thereafter he was given an extraordinary opportunity The Supreme Court ruled that the former president is immune From prosecution for official acts. The decision said that evidence related to Trump's work as President cannot be used in the trial.
Trump's legal team, led by Todd Blanche, sought to accept the historic verdict. Trump's sentence should be revokedAnd his sentence was cancelled. He argued that jurors should never have heard testimony related to Trump's communications with the former White House communications director. hope hicksOr his former executive assistant and Director of White House Operations Madeleine Westerhout.
Prosecutors argued in response that the Supreme Court's ruling did not apply to the evidence shown at trial. He also said that the material contested by Trump's lawyers was “one piece” of the evidence considered by the jury.
The jury ultimately concluded that Trump committed 34 crimes In signing a plan to cover reimbursement Michael CohenHis former lawyer and fixer. Cohen paid adult film star $130,000 stormy danielsDays before the 2016 presidential election, to buy her silence about an alleged sexual encounter with Trump years earlier. This agreement has often been referred to as a “hush money” deal.
Trump insists he is not guilty of falsifying business records – a charge of which he was convicted – and has vehemently denied Daniels' story.
The Supreme Court's decision in July was the latest curveball in a case dating back to 2018, when the Manhattan District Attorney's office first began investigating “hush money” deals.
During his first term as president, Trump fought the investigation as it expanded into a broader investigation of his finances. The first landmark Supreme Court decision in the case came in 2020, when the nation's highest court ruled that the Constitution does not prevent state criminal subpoenas of a sitting president. The ruling allowed the Manhattan District Attorney, then Cyrus Vance Jr., access to Trump's tax returns.
The city's next district attorney, Alvin Bragg, took up the case, but limited its focus, and relegated it to a “hush money” deal. On March 31, 2023, a grand jury made Trump the first former and future president to be indicted for crimes.
Trump's seven-week trial began more than a year later, on April 15. The jury convicted him after deliberating for a day and a half.
A sad but defiant Trump walked out of the courtroom and immediately returned to his presidential campaign in front of cameras just steps away.