United States President-elect Donald Trump lost an effort to have his criminal hush money conviction dismissed on immunity grounds after a judge ruled that the Supreme Court's recent decision on presidential immunity doesn't apply to the evidence presented in the case.
Back in May, Trump was convicted by a jury on all 34 counts of falsifying business records related to hush-money payments to an adult film actress. He denied wrongdoing. Trump's attorneys argued that both the indictment and verdict should be tossed out due to the Supreme Court's July decision that found that Trump and other US presidents have presumptive criminal immunity for official acts in office. Prosecutors said that their case involved Trump's personal conduct, not his official acts.
Judge Juan Merchan wrote that evidence shown at trial was related "entirely to unofficial conduct" and therefore was not under the immunity principles.
