Trump’s Hush-Money Conviction Must Be Preserved, DA Tells Judge

Donald Trump’s criminal conviction in his New York hush-money case can’t be dismissed as a result of his election victory and must instead be preserved during his upcoming presidency, Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg told a judge.

In a court filing made public Tuesday, Bragg urged the judge to deny Trump’s request for dismissal, saying the former president doesn’t have immunity for crimes unrelated to official acts. The district attorney said putting the case on hold while Trump serves his second term in office would avoid interfering with his constitutional duties.

Dismissal of the case “would go well beyond what is necessary to protect the presidency and would subvert the compelling public interest in preserving the jury’s unanimous verdict and upholding the rule of law,” Bragg said in the filing.

Alvin Bragg

Photographer: Stephanie Keith/Bloomberg

Trump, who won the election about five months after being convicted, is seeking to clear away his biggest remaining legal threat before his inauguration. The US Justice Department voluntarily dropped two unrelated federal cases against Trump as a result of his election victory, while a state case in Georgia over his attempt to overturn the 2020 election hasn’t gone to trial yet and is also in limbo.

Trump, 78, faces as long as four years in prison after a jury in May found him guilty on 34 felony counts of falsifying business records, though he could get far less than that or even no time behind bars. Justice Juan Merchan postponed Trump’s sentencing as a result of his election campaign and did so again after he won. The judge must now decide what to do next in the unprecedented case.

Trump’s request for dismissal, filed last week, also included his repeated argument that he was unfairly targeted by Democratic prosecutors for political purposes. His lawyers cited President Joe Biden’s decision to pardon his son, Hunter Biden, whose own criminal case his father claimed was politically tinged. Trump’s team argued Bragg committed the same selective prosecution that Biden complained about.

Trump’s defense lawyers also said the case was tainted by “contrived, defective and unprecedented legal theory.” They insisted the hush-money case should never have been brought and should now be immediately dismissed.

Bragg said Trump’s claims about being treated unfairly are “baseless” and have already been “repeatedly rejected” by Merchan and other courts.

“Defendant provides no basis whatsoever for this Court to revisit these rewarmed complaints,” Bragg said. “Instead, the overwhelming evidence of defendant’s guilt and the critical importance of preserving public confidence in the criminal justice system, among many other factors, weigh heavily against dismissal.”

If Trump fails to get the case dismissed, he faces the prospect of being sentenced soon after leaving office, when he’ll be about 82.

To contact the reporters on this story:
Erik Larson in New York at elarson4@bloomberg.net;
Patricia Hurtado in Federal Court in Manhattan at pathurtado@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story:
Misyrlena Egkolfopoulou at megkolfopoul@bloomberg.net

Steve Stroth, Anthony Lin

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