1 of 3 | “Look, the Supreme Court unequivocally said that a president, not just President Trump, but any president is entitled to a significant immunity when it comes to his job,” Trump lawyer Todd Blanche (pictured in May) told Hugh Hewitt Tuesday during a radio interview. Pool Photo by Mark Peterson/UPI | License Photo
Former President Donald Trump’s lead attorney on Tuesday called for Trump’s criminal charges to be dropped after recent court rulings weighed in their favor.
“Look, the Supreme Court unequivocally said that a president, not just President Trump, but any president is entitled to a significant immunity when it comes to his job,” Trump lawyer Todd Blanche, who represents him in the New York and Florida cases, told Hugh Hewitt during a radio interview. Advertisement
Blanche said he believes Trump’s criminal hush-money conviction should be tossed because, in his opinion, the prosecution used evidence in supposed violation of the Supreme Court’s recent ruling on presidential immunity, and after the recent Florida ruling by a Trump-appointed judge in the classified documents case relating to the appointment of a special prosecutor.
“And so we, this conviction, in our view, should have never happened in the first place,” Blanche said. “But just under the Supreme Court’s decision, it should be dismissed, in our view, immediately.” Advertisement
Trump in May was found guilty on all 34 felony counts by a jury of his peers in the New York hush-money trial for the falsification of Trump Organization business records to allegedly hide the former reality television star’s affair with porn star Stormy Daniels at about the time of his 2016 presidential campaign.
Lead by Blanche, Trump’s legal team has since filed an appeal to his New York criminal conviction.
“And there was some key testimony that was offered by the people,” Blanched said, “that is absolutely immune and never should have been said to anybody, much less to a jury in Manhattan.”
As recently as right before Saturday’s assassination attempt, Trump was saying he wanted a judge to throw out his hush-money conviction, claiming he should be shielded from punishment for his involvement in alleged acts of election interference after the recent Supreme Court ruling citing immunity for official actions of a president while in office.
But the Supreme Court’s recent decision to at least partially affirm Trump’s claim of presidential immunity has broadened the scope of presidential power and limited accountability of the nation’s chief executive, legal experts say. Advertisement
The Republican presidential nominee still faces federal charges by special council Jack Smith over Trump’s alleged actions during the deadly Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol, and in the Georgia election interference case. Both are now in question after the Supreme Court’s presidential immunity ruling.
Meanwhile, Trump-appointed U.S. District Court Judge Aileen Cannon in Florida recently granted Trump’s dismissal of the classified documents case, ruling in her opinion that Smith’s appointment supposedly violates the Appointments Clause of the Constitution as the Justice Department vowed to appeal Cannon’s ruling to that effect.
Blanche on Tuesday praised Cannon’s decision, calling it a “phenomenal day for the rule of law.”
He said Smith, the DOJ-appointed special prosecutor, “has not been nominated by the president,” Blanche said. “He has not been confirmed by the Senate. And we have a United States Constitution. And the United States Constitution says you cannot do that.”
However, given the timing of Trump’s recent assassination attempt, Blanche says he is hopeful Judge Juan Merchan will ultimately toss out the New York case he presided over.
Characterizing Saturday’s Trump rally shooting as “just a very sad day for this country,” Blanched claimed it was “in part a reflection of the lawfare, in my view, that’s been happening against President Trump, including the D.A. in the Manhattan case.” Advertisement
But Trump’s request to get the conviction dismissed faces steep odds. And his continued legal battling has resulted in delays to his Sept. 18 sentencing in New York.
Blanche indicated how an overturning of Trump’s criminal conviction “would go a long way, in my view, to healing some of the wounds that we have.” But he was cautious to not “get too excited, but I really hope Judge Merchan agrees with our motion and throws this case out.”
