Judge rejects Trump’s bid to overturn impeachment

A judge on Monday rejected President-elect Donald Trump’s bid to overturn a hush money indictment against him in a recent Supreme Court ruling on presidential immunity. But the overall future of the business remains uncertain.

The ruling by Manhattan Judge Juan M. Mercha removes one potential departure from the case ahead of Trump’s return to office next month. But his lawyers put forward other arguments for dismissal.

Prosecutors say certain conditions must be in place for his upcoming presidency, but they insist the sentence remains in effect.

Jury impeached Trump in May 34 falsified business records in connection with a $130,000 hush money payment from the US to porn star Stormy Daniels in 2016. Trump denies wrongdoing.

The allegations involved a scheme to hide money from Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign to keep voters from hearing about Daniels’ alleged affair with a businessman he had been married to for years. He says there is nothing sexual between them.

After the verdict, the decision of the Supreme Court

Weeks after the verdict, The Supreme Court has decided that ex-presidents cannot be prosecuted for their official acts — what they did while running the country — and that prosecutors cannot cite those acts to bolster a case based solely on personal, unofficial conduct.

Trump’s attorneys later cited the Supreme Court’s opinion, arguing that the silence allowed the grand jury access to some improper evidence, such as Trump’s presidential financial disclosure form, the testimony of some White House aides, and his social media posts while in office.

In Monday’s ruling, Merchan rejected the bulk of Trump’s claims that some of the prosecutors’ evidence was related to official acts and immunity protections.

The judge said that even if he did find some evidence of official conduct, he would still accept that prosecutors’ decision to “use these acts as evidence of determined personal actions to falsify business documents is a threat to government interference and an executive function.”

Even if prosecutors mistakenly introduced evidence that could be challenged by an immunity claim, Merchan continued, “such an error was harmless in light of the overwhelming evidence of guilt.”

Prosecutors said the evidence was only “a piece” of their case.

On Monday, Steven Cheung, Trump’s communications director, called Merchan’s decision “a direct violation of the Supreme Court’s ruling on immunity and other long-standing jurisprudence.”

“This illegal case should never have been filed and the Constitution requires it to be dismissed immediately,” Cheung said.

The Manhattan district attorney’s office, which prosecuted the case, declined to comment.

Who is 78-year-old Trump? won the presidential elections in the United States on November 5He started his duties on January 20.