New York Judge Juan Merchan has upheld President-elect Donald Trump’s hush money conviction, declaring it valid despite arguments rooted in a landmark immunity ruling by the U.S. Supreme Court.
Trump’s legal team had urged Merchan to overturn the guilty verdict in New York v. Trump, citing the Supreme Court’s July ruling, which granted presidents broad immunity from criminal prosecution for “official actions” undertaken while in office.
However, Merchan, who presided over the trial, sided firmly with prosecutors. In his decision, he emphasized that the 34 felony convictions were rooted in unofficial conduct.
This ruling preserves Trump’s unprecedented conviction—one that could make him the first felon to serve as U.S. president, should it stand.
It was in May 2024 that a New York jury found Trump guilty of falsifying business records—a conviction tied to his attempt to conceal reimbursements made to his former lawyer, Michael Cohen. The reimbursements were for payments Cohen made in 2016 to silence an adult film star over an alleged sexual encounter with Trump.
Trump, however, has consistently denied any wrongdoing.
In his comprehensive 41-page ruling, Justice Merchan rebuffed Trump’s assertion that the case relied on evidence tied to his presidential duties, which would fall under immunity.
The trial evidence, Merchan wrote, pertained “entirely to unofficial conduct.” He further referenced the Supreme Court’s own determination that not every action by a president qualifies as official—even those carried out from the Oval Office.
Reacting to the decision, Trump spokesman Steven Cheung issued a scathing statement to U.S. media, criticizing the ruling as a direct affront to the Supreme Court’s stance on immunity.
“This lawless case should have never been brought, and the Constitution demands that it be immediately dismissed,” Cheung declared.