Manhattan prosecutors are urging the judge who oversaw Donald J. Trump’s criminal hush-money trial to uphold his conviction, seeking to cast doubt on the former president’s long-shot bid to overturn the case because of a recent Supreme Court ruling.
Instead, the Manhattan prosecutors noted, he was convicted in May of covering up a sex scandal that had threatened to derail his 2016 campaign, a personal and political crisis that did not involve his conduct as president.
Mr. Trump’s lawyers, seeking to link the two cases, have mounted a novel argument.
In a recent filing to the judge who presided over the Manhattan trial, Juan M. Merchan, they contended that the Supreme Court’s decision had invalidated at least some of the evidence presented in Manhattan, including the testimony of former White House employees and tweets that Mr. Trump sent as president.
The Supreme Court, they noted, had held that official acts could be inadmissible as evidence — even if a case concerned private misconduct.
Persons:
Donald J, Trump, Juan M
Organizations:
White, Manhattan, White House
Locations:
Manhattan, Washington