Former president Donald Trump faces "an uphill battle" to have his hush money convictions overturned, according to a former U.S. attorney.
Trump, the presumptive Republican nominee, was set to be sentenced on July 11 after being convicted in May on 34 counts of falsifying business records as part of a scheme to influence the 2016 election through a hush money payment to adult film actor Stormy Daniels. Trump denies any wrongdoing and Daniels' allegations of an extramarital sexual encounter.
But on Tuesday, his sentencing was postponed until at least September as Judge Juan Merchan agreed to weigh the impact of Monday's Supreme Court decision on presidential immunity. The ruling said that former presidents have immunity from prosecution for all official acts, but not unofficial or personal acts.
Trump's lawyers argued that the court's ruling requires not just delaying the sentencing, but also overturning Trump's conviction. In an appearance on MSNBC, Barbara McQuade, a former U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Michigan appointed by Barack Obama, said Trump's lawyers will struggle to make the case that the court's ruling means the conviction needs to be tossed.
"I don't think there is anything in this case—the payment of hush money to a porn star, the falsification of business records to conceal that—I don't think there's any way to characterize any of that as an official act that would be immune from prosecution," McQuade said on The Last Word with Lawrence O'Donnell.
She told Newsweek via email that the case "does not involve official acts of a president. The falsification of business records to conceal a conspiracy to influence to the 2016 election was committed in Trump's role as a candidate, not in his role as president."
On MSNBC, she said "the only little sliver of possibility of an argument that Trump's team could raise is this other part of the ruling where the Supreme Court said that the prosecution cannot even use as evidence any official act in bringing a case for unofficial conduct."
That means looking back on the trial to see if there was any evidence presented that may be considered the official conduct of a president, she said.
"I suppose there is an argument that the testimony of Hope Hicks, who was testifying about a conversation she had with Donald Trump when she was a communication staffer for him," she said. "Is that possibly an official act? I think it is arguable, so I think that could be the issue. Now I think even if it is erroneous to allow that in, even if Donald Trump did not waive immunity by failing to raise it in a timely fashion, just because there's an error in the trial does not mean that the case gets overturned."
McQuade said Trump's lawyers will "have to show that the error would've made a difference in the outcome of the trial, and so I think it makes it an uphill battle for Trump's defense team."
McQuade and a Trump attorney were contacted for further comment via email.
Merchan wrote in his response to Trump's lawyers that he would rule on the defense application on September 6, and set Trump's a sentencing date for September 18 "if such is still necessary."
In a post on Truth Social on Tuesday, Trump claimed the Supreme Court's decision means "TOTAL EXONERATION" for him in all of the criminal cases against him. "The impact of the Immunity Ruling is a loud and clear signal for Justice in the United States," Trump wrote.
The Supreme Court's immunity decision makes it all but certain that Trump will not face trial in his election interference case in Washington before November's election.
Trump has been charged with illegally hoarding classified documents at his Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida and obstructing the government's efforts to get them back. He is also accused of participating in a scheme to illegally try to overturn his narrow loss to Biden in the 2020 election in Georgia. Neither of those cases are expected to go to trial before November.
Trump has denied wrongdoing in all of the cases.
Update 7/4/24, 8:54 a.m. ET: This article has been updated to add comment from Barbara McQuade.
About the writer
Khaleda Rahman is Newsweek's National Correspondent based in London, UK. Her focus is reporting on abortion rights, race, education, sexual ... Read more
