Donald Trump and his legal team are making their move.
After the presidential immunity verdict was announced, Trump’s legal team decided to roll the dice.
They immediately filed to have the hush-money verdict set aside, believing the Supreme Court decision on presidential immunity was relevant to the case.
Will It Work?
A lot of Trump supporters are excited over the idea that the verdict will be set aside, but that is more than likely not going to happen.
Yes, the court reaffirmed presidential immunity for acts as president, but that hush-money payment had nothing to do with Trump’s presidency.
That would have been the act of a private citizen-candidate, and a business owner, not the sitting president.
Trump, for some reason, seems to believe that since he was president, any act that he has been charged with will be nullified, but that is not how presidential immunity works.
In the ruling, the majority wrote, “If official conduct for which the President is immune may be scrutinized to help secure his conviction, even on charges that purport to be based only on his unofficial conduct, the ‘intended effect’ of immunity would be defeated.”
The key to that entire statement is “president.” Trump was not president when he made the hush-money payment.
Now, there are cases where this ruling may impact Trump’s case, most notably the Georgia case and the January 6 case, but not in the hush-money payment case.
In fact, even in those two cases, whether or not that ruling applies will depend on the court’s interpretation of the acts allegedly committed by Trump.
If they deem those acts to not have been “official” acts as the president, immunity will not apply.
