Motive was one of the things that SCOTUS mentioned.
And I believe ALL the entries were after he was President.
Seriously, the law compels him to declare a mistrial based on the SCOTUS decision. If he just does a sentence anyway, Trump can appeal this immediately back to the highest court.
Merchan knows the gig is up.
The Bragg gang will argue that payments to Cohen ware not an official act of POTUS. They were not illegal either, but thanks to Merchan's instructions, the jury got it wrong.
“Motive was one of the things that SCOTUS mentioned.”
That only pertains to official acts. Even Trump’s team does not claim that the payments were official acts. If they were, the payments would have come from government accounts, not from the Trump Revocable Trust. So it is not impermissible for the court to consider if his motive for making the payments was to cover up a federal crime, even if he was president at the time, as it was an unofficial act. I’m not saying he was trying to do so, the claim doesn’t pass the smell test. I am just pointing out that the immunity decision does not impact this issue.
“And I believe ALL the entries were after he was President.”
Irrelevant, since the entries were not official acts. There are many other grounds for appeal of this case, but that is not one of them.
As others have pointed out, where the immunity case should impact this case is due to the fact that Marchan allowed evidence and testimony related to his official duties to be used in the trial. That’s not allowed under this ruling. At a minimum, a mistrial should be declared, and Bragg can decide if he wants to retry the case without that evidence included.
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