Federal judge won’t dismiss Trump’s business fraud case

U.S. District Court Judge Alvin Hellerstein on Tuesday ruled that former President Donald Trump’s payments to suppress information about past extramarital affairs were not official acts. A state court convicted Trump in May of 34 felony charges for falsifying business records related to the payments. Since the payments were not official acts, the U.S. Supreme Court’s recent decision on immunity from criminal prosecution for former presidents does not apply, Hellerstein ruled. The ruling dismisses a motion Trump made asking the federal judge to intervene.

Hellerstein wrote that he could not intervene in a state court case without sufficient cause, which he found that Trump had not shown. Signing checks in the Oval Office to reimburse a lawyer who suppressed displeasing personal information, wasn’t an official act, the judge found. It did not fall inside the realm of conduct protected by the Supreme Court’s ruling, Hellerstein concluded.

Isn’t Trump also asking the state court to dismiss his case? Acting New York State Supreme Court Justice Juan Merchan has yet to rule on a motion to dismiss the case against Trump. The prosecution used some of the former president’s official acts as evidence during the trial, Trump’s lawyers said. The Supreme Court’s criminal immunity ruling, which came down roughly a month after Trump’s conviction, means that prosecutors can’t use official acts as evidence to convict former presidents, the Trump team argued.

Prosecutors contend that the Supreme Court’s decision doesn’t prevent official acts from serving as evidence during a state-level criminal trial. They also argue that the evidence about presidential acts Trump made while in the Oval Office constituted a small part of the evidence considered by the jury that convicted the former president.

Merchan is also considering another motion Trump made to delay his sentencing until after the Nov. 5 election. Trump’s lawyers argue that any sentencing before that date would constitute election interference.