Donald Trump Now Seeking to Overturn Criminal Law Through Supreme Court Ruling

Donald Trump/PHOTO via Instagram @realdonaldtrump

JAKARTA - Former US President Donald Trump is trying to use a Supreme Court ruling that presidents are immune from lawsuits for official acts to overturn his New York state criminal conviction.

The letter to the judge presiding over the New York case has not been made public. The lawsuit was filed on Monday, July 1, after a landmark Supreme Court ruling further slowed the former president's criminal case.

Manhattan District Attorney spokesman Alvin Bragg declined to comment when asked about Trump's efforts to overturn the conviction, which was first reported by The New York Times.

Trump's New York criminal case is the only one of four against him to go to trial, according to CBS News. On May 30, a jury unanimously found Trump guilty of 34 felony counts of falsifying business records in an attempt to cover up the reimbursement of "hush money" payments to a porn star.

Trump signed the falsification agreement while he was in the White House in 2017.

The Supreme Court ruling grants former presidents broad immunity from criminal prosecution for their official acts. But the issue of whether Trump was involved in official acts has been raised in his case in New York.

Trump in 2023 sought to move the case from state jurisdiction to federal jurisdiction. His lawyers argued the charges involved official actions consistent with his presidential duties.

That argument was rejected by a federal judge who wrote Trump failed to show his actions were “for or in connection with any act done by or for the President that reflects the official conduct of a president.”

“The evidence suggests that this is purely a private matter for the president – ​​an attempt to cover up an embarrassing event,” wrote U.S. District Judge Alvin Hellerstein.

"Hush money paid to an adult film star has nothing to do with the president's official conduct. It has nothing to do with the president's official duties," he said.

Trump initially appealed the ruling, but later dropped it.

The case went to trial in April, and soon after the jury's unanimous guilty verdict, Trump vowed to appeal the conviction.

Trump is scheduled to be sentenced on July 11. Prosecutors are expected to submit a sentencing recommendation on Monday, July 24. The filing has not been made public.