New York Judge Denies Immunity for President Trump

Judge Juan Merchan just denied President Donald Trump’s attempt to throw out Manhattan DA Alvin Bragg’s charges based on the U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling on presidential immunity. How long can the far Left keep these cases going against Trump?

The judge’s decision was initially expected to come in early November. He postponed it based on the 2024 presidential election results and on the Justices’ ruling that U.S. Presidents are immune from prosecution for “official acts” while in office.

Trump’s attorneys had protested that much of the evidence in the New York case should be categorized as “official acts.” However, the judge not only ruled that the evidence did not fall under the purview of “official acts,” he also stated in his ruling:

Lastly, this Court concludes that if error occurred regarding the introduction of the challenged evidence, such error was harmless in light of the overwhelming evidence of guilt.

So the judge made his own judgments about some of the evidence and decided that any mistakes by the prosecution were just “harmless” errors that paled in comparison to what he determined was “overwhelming evidence of guilt.”

In other words, a lower state judge took matters into his own hands and ignored the Justices’ guidelines for determining presidential immunity. As a result, the judge’s decision likely opens the door for President Trump’s legal team to have ample opportunity for an appeal.

Don’t forget that last week DA Bragg also introduced a novel legal theory (bizarrely referencing a state rule in Alabama) to keep Trump’s conviction in place yet cancel sentencing as if Trump had already died. Bragg is clearly grasping at straws to secure a win for his District Attorney’s Office, which many are calling for Trump’s DOJ to investigate.

ACLJ Senior Counsel and Director of Policy Harry Hutchison reacted to Judge Merchan’s decision:

If we focus on Judge Merchan’s decision in this case so far, he has ruled that Trump does not have presidential immunity for his campaign finance conviction. So essentially, we have a state action brought to vindicate campaign finance law, which is a federal offense. And so what Judge Merchan has done, at this particular point in time, is he has ignored the Supreme Court’s presidential immunity decision. . . .

The judge did not explicitly rule on Trump’s motion to dismiss on the grounds that Trump has now been elected President. So . . . we have a situation in which we have an outstanding Supreme Court decision on immunity. Judge Merchan basically said that if evidence was introduced concerning Donald Trump’s “official acts,” first, such evidence would be a “harmless error.” Second, Judge Merchan concluded that no such evidence had indeed been introduced. So in some respects, Judge Merchan is not clear and contradicts himself.

It’s surprising that the judge delayed his initial ruling and still made such an outrageous decision. He could have taken an easy off-ramp and stopped the ongoing political prosecution of President Trump. However, his stubbornness to allow for the continued prosecution of Trump is on full display.

The ACLJ has been vigilantly fighting against the political prosecution of President Trump. We had filed an amicus brief in the vital case at the U.S. Supreme Court regarding presidential immunity. The Justices rightly agreed with the arguments in our brief.

We need your support to fund our fight. Sign our petition to stop the political prosecution of President Trump, and please donate during the final days of our Faith & Freedom Year-End Drive. Gifts are doubled at this time.

Today’s Sekulow broadcast included a full analysis of Judge Juan Merchan’s ignoring the Supreme Court’s ruling on presidential immunity and denying President Trump’s attempt to dismiss DA Alvin Bragg’s charges. Also, Tim Goeglein joined to discuss his book Stumbling Toward Utopia: How the 1960s Turned Into a National Nightmare and How We Can Revive the American Dream.

Watch the full broadcast below: