Donald J. Trump’s lawyers want to argue that a Supreme Court decision giving presidents immunity for official acts should void his felony conviction for covering up hush money paid to a porn star.
His team claims that the evidence used was gathered during the presidency, when he was immune. It sounds absurd, since concealing private business records is clearly not an official function of the presidency, but its was apparently enough to sway the prosecution who admittedly may know more about the legal system than I do.
His team claims that the evidence used was gathered during the presidency, when he was immune.
If I read the ruling correctly, this is where the problem is. If I interpreted the ruling correctly, any evidence gathered during his presidency is considered privileged and therefore can’t be used against Trump. Since at least some of the crime was committed (him signing the checks) and some of the evidence was gathered while he was in office, this ruling makes that evidence inadmissable, and therefore the verdict invalid.
And this is exactly where you would most likely find evidence of “unofficial actions”. The president is not personally going out and doing these actions themselves, they’re using their administration. All those communications are now inadmissible. They tried to make it seem like they weren’t fully siding with Trump, but they absolutely are.
His team claims that the evidence used was gathered during the presidency, when he was immune. It sounds absurd, since concealing private business records is clearly not an official function of the presidency, but its was apparently enough to sway the prosecution who admittedly may know more about the legal system than I do.
If I read the ruling correctly, this is where the problem is. If I interpreted the ruling correctly, any evidence gathered during his presidency is considered privileged and therefore can’t be used against Trump. Since at least some of the crime was committed (him signing the checks) and some of the evidence was gathered while he was in office, this ruling makes that evidence inadmissable, and therefore the verdict invalid.
And this is exactly where you would most likely find evidence of “unofficial actions”. The president is not personally going out and doing these actions themselves, they’re using their administration. All those communications are now inadmissible. They tried to make it seem like they weren’t fully siding with Trump, but they absolutely are.