Trump’s Lawyers Seek Dismissal Of President’s Criminal Conviction

Authored by Zachary Stieber via The Epoch Times,

Lawyers for President Donald Trump asked an appeals court in New York state this week to throw out Trump’s criminal conviction for falsifying business records.

Evidence in the case was insufficient to convict Trump, his lawyers told the New York State Supreme Court Appellate Division in a brief. They also said the court had wrongly ruled against the theory that presidential immunity means that official acts cannot be used against a president.

“In addition to all this overwhelming error, the trial was conducted by a judge who refused to recuse himself despite having made political contributions to President Trump’s electoral opponents and despite having disqualifying family conflicts,” the lawyers wrote.

“For each of these independent reasons, President Trump’s conviction must be set aside.”

Trump, at the time a candidate for president, was convicted in 2024 of falsifying business records.

After Trump won the 2024 election, Justice Juan Merchan of the New York State Supreme Court handed down a sentence with no jail time or fines, citing “legal protections afforded to the office of the president of the United States.”

Merchan, who was overseeing the case, had previously turned away Trump’s arguments against evidence in the case and assertions that the president was protected by presidential immunity.

Lawyers for Trump wrote in the new brief that jurors had improperly heard testimony about official acts by Trump, including official statements that he made on social media and alleged discussions between Trump and the attorney general about enforcing federal campaign regulations.

They pointed to a U.S. Supreme Court decision in 2024, in which justices ruled that presidents have immunity from criminal prosecution for official acts.

The ruling states, “If official conduct for which the President is immune may be scrutinized to help secure his conviction, even on charges that purport to be based only on his unofficial conduct, the ‘intended effect’ of immunity would be defeated.”

A spokesperson for Trump told news outlets in a statement on Oct. 28: “The Supreme Court’s historic decision on Immunity, the Federal and New York State Constitutions, and other established legal precedent mandate that this meritless hoax be immediately overturned and dismissed.

“President Trump will keep defeating Democrat weaponization at every turn as he focuses on his singular mission to Make America Great Again.”