New York Supreme Court Justice Juan Merchan is expected to rule by Nov. 12 whether President-elect Donald Trump can avoid sentencing later this month due to questions surrounding his immunity under the Constitution.
Trump has asked Merchan to reject New York District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s indictment related to a payment made to adult film actress Stephanie Clifford, also known as Stormy Daniels. A jury found Trump guilty of various related felony counts of falsifying documents.
Trump’s attorneys argued that the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in Trump v. United States, which granted different levels of criminal immunity for presidents’ official conduct, barred the use of certain evidence and witness testimony.
In his July response to the request to dismiss the indictment, Bragg argued that Trump had waited too long to raise some of his arguments about immunity. He also said a federal judge had deemed the conduct in question—an alleged payment to Clifford—outside of a president’s official duties.
“Nothing in the Supreme Court’s opinion affects my previous conclusion that the hush money payments were private, unofficial acts, outside the bounds of executive authority,” Southern District of New York Judge Alvin Hellerstein said in September, when he refused a request to move the case out of state court on the basis of the Supreme Court’s immunity decision.
Hellerstein already rejected Trump’s request in July 2023 to remove the case to federal court.
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