I thought this took place prior to the election. If so, immunity doesn’t carry.
I’m not saying he’s guilty, the whole trial is a sham.
I think they will may this as a convenient exit so they don’t lose on appeal. It’s an excuse.
The whole trial is a sham. I'm sick and tired of hearing "34 counts...". That is based on 34 installment payments, where checks were written out 34 times to cover the one large sum of "hush" money. So it isn't 34 things to convict him on, it's about one single thing.
And... the 34 payments were begun when Donald Trump was President in the White House, so the immunity does indeed carry because he was President when the so-called illegal payments began.
There should have been no conviction at all, innocent or guilty. And I believe Trump to be innocent, despite the 4-4-4 juror ruling (only a fraction of the juror pool convicted him). The trial was indeed a sham.
I had read that they used conversations, texts from President Trump, that occurred while in office, as part of the evidence against him. Not a lawyer, but I think, if they showed the jury ANYTHING that is covered by the presumption of immunity that the case gets tossed, period. Other thoughts from more lawyerly people here?
I agree. I don’t get it
But the indictments against him were for transactions that were dated while he was President.
From NPR The 34 felony counts in Trump’s hush money trial (h/t FReeper Brian Griffin):
COUNT VERDICT BUSINESS RECORD DATE
1 Guilty Invoice from Michael Cohen, marked as a record of the Donald J. Trump Revocable Trust Feb. 14, 2017
2 Guilty Entry in the Detail General Ledger for the Donald J. Trump Revocable Trust, bearing voucher number 842457 Feb. 14, 2017
3 Guilty Entry in the Detail General Ledger for the Donald J. Trump Revocable Trust, bearing voucher number 842460 Feb. 14, 2017
4 Guilty Check and check stub, Donald J. Trump Revocable Trust Account, bearing check number 000138 Feb. 14, 2017
5 Guilty Invoice from Michael Cohen, marked as a record of the Donald J. Trump Revocable Trust March 16, 2017
6 Guilty Entry in the Detail General Ledger for the Donald J. Trump Revocable Trust, bearing voucher number 846907 March 17, 2017
7 Guilty Check and check stub, Donald J. Trump Revocable Trust Account, bearing check number 000147 March 17, 2017
8 Guilty Invoice from Michael Cohen, marked as a record of Donald J. Trump April 13, 2017
9 Guilty Entry in the Detail General Ledger for Donald J. Trump, bearing voucher number 858770 June 19, 2017
10 Guilty Check and check stub, Donald J. Trump account, bearing check number 002740 June 19, 2017
11 Guilty Invoice from Michael Cohen, marked as a record of Donald J. Trump May 22, 2017
12 Guilty Entry in the Detail General Ledger for Donald J. Trump, bearing voucher number 855331 May 22, 2017
13 Guilty Check and check stub, Donald J. Trump account, bearing check number 002700 May 23, 2017
14 Guilty Invoice from Michael Cohen, marked as a record of Donald J. Trump June 16, 2017
15 Guilty Entry in the Detail General Ledger for Donald J. Trump, bearing voucher number 858772 June 19, 2017
16 Guilty Check and check stub, Donald J. Trump account, bearing check number 002741 June 19, 2017
17 Guilty Invoice from Michael Cohen, marked as a record of Donald J. Trump July 11, 2017
18 Guilty Entry in the Detail General Ledger for Donald J. Trump, bearing voucher number 861096 July 11, 2017
19 Guilty Check and check stub, Donald J. Trump account, bearing check number 002781 July 11, 2017
20 Guilty Invoice from Michael Cohen, marked as a record of Donald J. Trump Aug. 1, 2017
21 Guilty Entry in the Detail General Ledger for Donald J. Trump, bearing voucher number 863641 Aug. 1, 2017
22 Guilty Check and check stub, Donald J. Trump account, bearing check number 002821 Aug. 1, 2017
23 Guilty Invoice from Michael Cohen, marked as a record of Donald J. Trump Sept. 11, 2017
24 Guilty Entry in the Detail General Ledger for Donald J. Trump, bearing voucher number 868174 Sept. 11, 2017
25 Guilty Check and check stub, Donald J. Trump account, bearing check number 002908 Sept. 12, 2017
26 Guilty Invoice from Michael Cohen, marked as a record of Donald J. Trump Oct. 18, 2017
27 Guilty Entry in the Detail General Ledger for Donald J. Trump, bearing voucher number 872654 Oct. 18, 2017
28 Guilty Check and check stub, Donald J. Trump account, bearing check number 002944 Oct. 18, 2017
29 Guilty Invoice from Michael Cohen, marked as a record of Donald J. Trump Nov. 20, 2017
30 Guilty Entry in the Detail General Ledger for Donald J. Trump, bearing voucher number 876511 Nov. 20, 2017
31 Guilty Check and check stub, Donald J. Trump account, bearing check number 002980 Nov. 21, 2017
32 Guilty Invoice from Michael Cohen, marked as a record of Donald J. Trump Dec. 1, 2017
33 Guilty Entry in the Detail General Ledger for Donald J. Trump, bearing voucher number 877785 Dec. 1, 2017
34 Guilty Check and check stub, Donald J. Trump account, bearing check number 003006 Dec. 5, 2017
I agree that even though the transactions were dated while he was president, I think SCOTUS ruled that running for office is not an official Presidential act, so immunity still wouldn't apply.
However...
SCOTUS also remanded back to lower courts to review the official versus personal nature of all the charges, so it's possible that Bragg is saying that the New York case didn't do this (even if it appears to be obvious) and that moving to sentencing before doing this is premature. I could be wrong here.
Others have also noted that the payments to Cohen were made monthly throughout the entire year of 2017, so how were they applicable to when Trump was running for President in 2016? Were they payments for personal legal services in 2017 or for personal legal services that were related to official acts (e.g., researching ramifications resulting from official acts)? I know I'm stretching here...
I think the bottom line is that the Bragg case must do this review regardless. They may still reach the same conclusion that the case meets the SCOTUS test of non-official acts, but it will push sentencing back until at least after the convention.
-PJ
Update:
Jonathan Turley on Fox News just said that the problem with the trial was that Bragg put Hope Hicks (White House Director of Strategic Communications at the time) on the witness stand to talk about President Trump's demeanor in the Oval Office while he was signing the checks. Those communications are presumptively immune.
Turley then said that the prosecutors can argue a "harmless error" and that even if Hopes' testimony was removed it wouldn't change the outcome of the trial.
-PJ