Former U.S. President Donald Trump. File.
| Photo Credit: Reuters

Former U.S. President Donald Trump’s lawyers have asked the New York judge who presided over his hush money trial to set aside his conviction and delay his sentencing, scheduled for next week.

The letter to Judge Juan M. Merchan cited the U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling earlier on Monday on presidential immunity and asked the judge to delay Mr. Trump’s sentencing while he weighs the high court’s decision and how it could influence the New York case, according to the letter obtained by The Associated Press.

The lawyers argue that the Supreme Court’s decision confirmed a position the defence raised earlier in the case that prosecutors should have been precluded from introducing some evidence they said constituted official presidential acts, according to the letter.

In prior court filings, Mr. Trump contended he is immune from prosecution for conduct alleged to involve official acts during his tenure in office. His lawyers did not raise that as a defence in the hush money case, but they argued that some evidence — including Mr. Trump’s social media posts about former lawyer Michael Cohen — comes from his time as President and should have been excluded from the trial because of immunity protections.

The Manhattan district attorney’s office declined to comment on Monday night.

The Supreme Court on Monday ruled for the first time that former presidents have broad immunity from prosecution, extending the delay in the Washington criminal case against the Republican ex-president on charges he plotted to overturn his 2020 election loss.

President Joe Biden warned Monday that the US Supreme Court’s landmark ruling on presidential immunity sets a “dangerous precedent” that Donald Trump would exploit if elected in November.

“The American people must decide if they want to entrust… once again, the presidency to Donald Trump, now knowing he’ll be more emboldened to do whatever he pleases, whenever he wants to do it,” Biden said.

Trump was convicted in New York of 34 counts of falsifying business records, arising from what prosecutors said was an attempt to cover up a hush money payment to a porn actor just before the 2016 presidential election. He is scheduled to be sentenced in the hush money case on July 11.

Merchan instituted a policy in the run-up to the trial requiring both sides to send him a one-page letter summarizing their arguments before making longer court filings. He said he did that to better manage the docket, so he was not inundated with voluminous paperwork.

In denying Trump’s bid to move the trial from New York state court to federal court last year, a federal judge found that the allegations at the center of the case pertained to Trump’s personal life and do not “reflect in any way the color of the President’s official duties.”

“The evidence overwhelmingly suggests that the matter was a purely a personal item of the President — a cover-up of an embarrassing event,” U.S. District Judge Alvin K. Hellerstein wrote in the ruling.

Washington:

Donald Trump says his historic criminal trial was “very hard” on his wife Melania, a notable absentee from the close family members who attended court in support of the former president.

“She’s fine, but I think it’s very hard for her,” Trump said in an interview aired on Fox and Friends Sunday. “She has to read all this crap.”

“I think it’s probably in many ways, it’s tougher on my family than it is on me,” he added.

A jury convicted Trump Thursday on all 34 felony charges of falsifying business records in the final stages of the 2016 presidential campaign to cover up a sex scandal involving porn star Stormy Daniels.

It was the first criminal conviction of a former president in US history and means Trump is now running in the November 5 presidential election as a felon.

While three of his adult children attended the closing days of the trial, Melania was absent throughout.

She has barely engaged with her husband’s White House campaign, failing to appear at a single Trump rally and rarely joins him in public.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

Former President Donald Trump walks to speaks to reporters with his attorney Todd Blanche, right, as jurors begin deliberations for his trial at Manhattan criminal court, on May 29, 2024, in New York.
| Photo Credit: AP

Jurors began deliberating on May 29 on whether to convict Donald Trump in the first criminal trial of a former US President — with their decision potentially upending November’s election, in which the Republican seeks to return to power.

After weeks of testimony from more than 20 witnesses, the piercing glare of the legal spotlight shifted to the 12-strong New York jury, kept anonymous for their own protection amid soaring political tensions.

After receiving final instructions from the judge, jurors left the courtroom to sit in a designated room where they alone will have the final say on 77-year-old Trump.

“You must set aside any personal opinions you have in favor or against the defendant,” said Judge Juan Merchan.

“As a juror, you are asked to make a very important decision about another member of the community.”

No time limit is placed on the deliberations, but an acquittal or conviction would require unanimity. If just one juror refuses to join the others, the judge would have to declare a mistrial.

Trump is accused of falsifying business records to reimburse a $130,000 payment to silence adult film star Stormy Daniels, when her account of an alleged sexual encounter could have imperiled his 2016 presidential campaign. Prosecutors say the fraud was motivated by a plot to prevent voters from knowing about his behavior.

If Trump is found guilty, the political repercussions would far outweigh the seriousness of the charges as, barely five months before the November 5 presidential election, the candidate would also become a convicted criminal.

The judge instructed Trump that he will have to remain in the courthouse while awaiting the verdict. Trump responded by stepping outside the courtroom to launch an angry statement to journalists, calling it a “very disgraceful situation.”

“These charges are rigged,” Trump said, claiming that “Mother Teresa could not beat these charges.”

‘Hatred for Trump’

In closing arguments on Tuesday, Trump’s defense team insisted the evidence for a conviction simply did not exist, while the prosecution countered that it was voluminous and inescapable.

“The defendant’s intent to defraud could not be any clearer,” said prosecutor Joshua Steinglass, urging the jurors to use their “common sense” and return a guilty verdict.

If convicted, Trump faces up to four years in prison on each of 34 counts, but legal experts say that as a first-time offender he is unlikely to get jail time.

A conviction would not bar him from the November ballot and he would almost certainly appeal. In the case of a mistrial, prosecutors could seek a new trial.

Trump has been required to attend every day of the trial.

However, he has used his trips to court and the huge media presence to spread his claim that the trial is a Democratic ploy to keep him off the campaign trail.

Polls show Trump neck and neck against President Joe Biden, and the verdict will inflame passions as the White House race intensifies.

In addition to the New York case, Trump has been indicted in Washington and Georgia on charges of conspiring to overturn the results of the 2020 election.

He also faces charges in Florida of hoarding huge quantities of classified documents after leaving the White House.

The New York case is the only one likely to come to trial by election day.

New York:

New York Attorney General Letitia James hit back at Donald Trump on Wednesday over his virulent attacks on the $250 million civil fraud suit she brought against him, saying she will “not be bullied.”

“The Donald Trump show is over,” James told reporters after the 77-year-old former president left court at the midpoint of Wednesday’s proceedings.

Before leaving, Trump railed against James and complained that the “rigged” trial with a judge “run by the Democrats” was keeping him off the presidential campaign trail.

“I’d rather be in New Hampshire, South Carolina or Ohio or a lot of other places,” Trump said. “But I’m stuck here because I have a corrupt attorney general.”

Responding to Trump, James said “I will not be bullied” and denounced his decision to attend the opening days of the trial as “a political stunt, a fund-raising stunt.”

James, who is African American, said Trump’s personal attacks on her this week were “offensive, they were baseless, they were void of any facts or of any evidence.

“What they were, were comments that unfortunately fomented violence, comments that I would describe as race-baiting, comments unfortunately that appeal to the bottom of our humanity.

“This case was brought simply because it was a case where individuals have engaged in a pattern and practice of fraud,” James said. “I will not sit idly by and allow anyone to subvert the law.”

Trump also resumed his verbal volleys on Wednesday against Judge Arthur Engoron, a day after he was admonished from the bench.

“The judge already knows what he’s going to do,” Trump said. “He’s a Democrat.”

Engoron imposed a partial gag order on Trump on Tuesday after the former president insulted one of the judge’s law clerks in a social media post.

“Personal attacks on members of my court staff are unacceptable,” Engoron said as Trump sat at the defense table flanked by his lawyers.

“Consider this statement a gag order forbidding all parties from posting, emailing or speaking publicly about any of my staff,” Engoron said.

The post was later deleted.

Multiple legal battles

James has accused Trump, his sons Eric and Don Jr and other executives of colossally inflating the value of their real estate assets in order to receive more favorable bank loans and insurance terms.

Trump does not risk going to jail in the civil trial, but James is seeking $250 million in penalties and the removal of the former president and his sons from the management of the family empire, the Trump Organization.

Trump has denounced the business fraud charges as a “sham” intended to torpedo his bid to recapture the White House next year.

Engoron ruled last week that Trump, his sons and other executives lied to tax collectors, lenders and insurers for years in a scheme that exaggerated the value of their properties by $812 million to $2.2 billion between 2014 and 2021.

As a result, the judge revoked the business licenses that allowed the Trump Organization to operate some of its New York properties and asked the parties to propose receivers to manage the dissolution of the companies in question.

Trump filed a formal appeal against the ruling on Wednesday but the trial will continue.

Trump, the frontrunner for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination, is facing legal battles on multiple fronts.

The twice-impeached former president faces federal charges for his efforts to overturn the 2020 presidential election and for alleged mishandling of classified documents after he left the White House.

Trump has also been charged with racketeering in Georgia for trying to overturn the 2020 election results in the southern state.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

An Indian Army jawan looking at the India-China border through his telescope in Arunachal Pradesh. File.
| Photo Credit: RITU RAJ KONWAR

Assam Rifles files defamation suit against Manipur politician, seeks apology

Assam Rifles, the oldest paramilitary force in the country, has slapped a legal notice against a Manipur politician for causing “considerable harm to the reputation and standing of the organisation in the public eye.” It said the notice is being served for tarnishing the reputation and “discouraging and demoralising” the Central armed police force. Assam Rifles sought a “written” and “public” apology for the false allegation and defamation asking him to retract the statement he made at ‘Condolence of Meitei Martyrs’ in Delhi on June 30.

China releases new official map, showing territorial claims

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Only Centre can conduct census, Union tells SC in Bihar caste survey case

The Union government saidonly the Centre is entitled to conduct census, in its reply to the Supreme Court on the Bihar government’s caste-based survey. The Centre had filed an affidavit earlier on August 28 morning which said in its penultimate paragraph that “no other body is entitled to conduct the exercise of either census or any action akin to census”. Earlier, the Supreme Court had refused to stay the uploading of data collected in the recently concluded Bihar caste-based survey while debunking claims that the Nitish Kumar government had violated the fundamental right to privacy by compelling people to reveal their caste.

Rajnath Singh to visit Sri Lanka this weekend, say defence sources

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Article 35A took away fundamental rights while giving special rights to permanent residents of J&K, says CJI

Chief Justice of India D.Y. Chandrachud said Article 35A, which empowered the Jammu and Kashmir Legislature to define “permanent residents” of the State and provide them special privileges, denied fundamental rights to others. “Article 35A gave special rights and privileges to permanent residents and virtually took away the rights for non-residents. These rights included the right to equal opportunity of State employment, right to acquire property and the right to settle in Jammu and Kashmir,” Chief Justice Chandrachud, heading a Constitution Bench, observed on August 28.

India’s population growth alone is not enough to make its economy stronger, says Moody’s

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Warming Pacific points to rise in cyclones over India: Study

Tropical cyclones that originate near the Equator, while being devastating, have been unusually subdued in recent decades. The last major cyclone of this kind in the Indian neighbourhood was the 2017 Cyclone Okchi which devastated Kerala, Tamil Nadu and Sri Lanka. However, a combination of global warming and a cyclical event called the Pacific Decadal Oscillation (PDO) that repeats every 20-30 years, could make such cyclones more frequent in the coming years, a study published on Monday in the journal Nature Communications said.

Federal Judge sets March 4 date for historic Donald Trump trial

A federal judge has set a date of March 4, 2024, for Donald Trump’s election subversion conspiracy trial — placing one of the biggest criminal cases in American history at peak election season. Special counsel Jack Smith had asked for the trial of the 45th US president to begin on January 2, while Mr. Trump’s attorneys countered with a proposed date of April 2026 — 17 months after the election.

Fire in coach: Five from Uttar Pradesh arrested in Madurai by Tamil Nadu Railway Police

The Tamil Nadu Railway Police, have arrested five persons from Uttar Pradesh in connection with the fire that broke out in a coach and claimed nine lives near the Madurai railway junction on Saturday. The arrested persons have been accused of having carried inflammable articles on the train, in violation of Section 164 of the Railway Act.

U.S. raises concerns on India’s decision to curb tech imports

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Foxconn billionaire Terry Gou says he will seek Taiwan’s presidency as independent candidate

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I have no personal desire to hold any post in INDIA, says Bihar CM Nitish Kumar

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WB fireworks blast: toll climbs to nine, one arrested

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