Judge rejects Trump’s request to toss Bragg charges in New York on grounds of presidential immunity

Judge Juan Merchan on Monday denied Trump’s lawyers’ request to dismiss charges brought against him by Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg on the basis of presidential immunity.

The ruling comes after President-elect Trump and his team petitioned Merchan in July to overturn his New York guilty verdict against Trump, citing the US Supreme Court’s ruling that presidents have immunity for official acts.

Merchan ruled that the evidence presented at trial related “entirely to unofficial conduct and therefore does not receive immunity protection.”

“Furthermore, even if this Court were to treat all of the challenged evidence, both preserved and unpreserved, as official conduct falling within the outer perimeter of defendant’s presidential authority, it would still find that the People’s use of those acts as evidence of the determined personal acts of falsifying business documents pose no threat of invasion of the executive branch’s authority and function, a conclusion amply supported by non-motive-related evidence,” writes Merchant.

Merchan also argued that the court said “if error occurred with respect to the introduction of the challenged evidence, such error was harmless in light of the overwhelming evidence of guilt.”

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Merchan denied that request, but has yet to rule on President-elect Trump’s formal motion to dismiss the case entirely.

“Today’s decision by deeply embattled acting Judge Merchan in the Manhattan DA witch hunt is a direct violation of the Supreme Court’s ruling on immunity and other long-standing case law,” Trump spokesman and incoming White House communications director Steven Cheung told Fox News Digital. “This lawless suit should never have been filed, and the Constitution requires that it be dismissed immediately as President Trump must be allowed to continue the presidential transition process and carry out the vital duties of the presidency, unimpeded by the remnants of this, or any other, Witch Hunt.”

FILE – Judge Juan M. Merchan poses in his chambers in New York, March 14, 2024. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig, File)

Cheung added, “The sooner these scams end, the sooner our country can unite behind President Trump for the betterment of all Americans.”

Trump pleaded not guilty to 34 counts of falsifying business records in the first degree stemming from the year-long investigation related to alleged hush money payments run by the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office. Former Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance opened the investigation, and Bragg prosecuted Trump.

After an unprecedented six-week trial in New York City, a jury found the president guilty on all counts.

The United States Supreme Court held that a former president has substantive immunity for official acts committed while in office.

In the formal motion in July, Trump attorney Todd Blanche pointed to the Supreme Court’s immunity ruling and argued that certain evidence of “official acts” should not have been admitted at trial.

Specifically, Blanche argued that testimony from former White House communications director Hope Hicks; former Special Assistant to the President Madeleine Westerhout; testimony about the Office of the Special Counsel and congressional investigations and the pardon power; testimony on President Trump’s responses to FEC inquiries; his presidential Twitter posts and other related testimony were inadmissibly admitted at trial.

Former President Trump and Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg. (Emily Elconin/Michael M. Santiago/Getty Images)

Meanwhile, earlier this month, Trump’s lawyers officially requested the “immediate” dismissal of charges against the president-elect in New York v. Trump, declaring that the “failed legal action” case “should never have been filed.”

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Trump’s lawyers said the case “would never have been filed if not for President Trump’s political views, the transformative national movement established under his leadership, and the political threat he poses to entrenched, corrupt politicians in Washington, DC and further.”

Trump’s lawyers said that “a wrongful continuance of this failed lawsuit disrupts President Trump’s transition efforts and his preparations to exercise the full Article II executive power authorized by the Constitution under the overwhelming national mandate given by the American people him on November 5, 2024.”

Bragg last month asked Judge Juan Merchan to delay the case until the end of Trump’s second term, but Trump’s lawyers noted that the Office of Legal Counsel at the Justice Department concluded that “the categorical prohibition against the federal indictment for a meeting. president … even if the case was stayed … applies to this situation.”

They added that Bragg’s “ludicrous suggestion that they could simply reopen the case after President Trump leaves office, more than a decade after they began their investigation in 2018, is not an option.”

This is a development story. Please check back for updates.