Judge Merchan faces the task of applying the Supreme Court's immunity ruling.With Donald Trump'suntil September following Tuesday's decision by Judge Juan Merchan, the judge now faces the task of applying the Supreme Court's new test for the limits of presidential immunity to the former president's criminal conviction.
Rather than argue that Trump's conduct related to Daniels' hush money payment constituted official acts of the presidency -- an argument a federal judge rejected last year -- Trump's lawyers have focused on what they have called "official-acts evidence." The Supreme Court's decision on immunity included some protections for Trump's communications -- including tweets -- because they "fall comfortably within the outer perimeter of his official responsibilities"; however, the ruling added that lower courts would need to determine if Trump was speaking in his official capacity as president or in an unofficial function such as a candidate for office or party leader.
Prosecutor Joshua Steinglass later described that testimony to the jury as "devastating," saying that it "puts the nail in Mr. Trump's coffin." According to Justin Levitt, a constitutional law professor at Loyola Law School, the ambiguity of the Supreme Court's decision about the use of such evidence presents an opportunity for Trump's lawyers, despite a federal judge already determining that the hush money payment was "purely a personal item of the President."
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