Judge Merchan rejected presidential immunity arguments, upholds Trump's Manhattan conviction

Judge Juan Merchan refused to overturn Donald Trump's conviction for falsifying business records, upholding a jury verdict that found the Republican guilty on 34 counts in Manhattan. The president-elect's legal team had argued that the now president-elect fell under the Supreme Court's umbrella of presidential immunity.

Until the ruling is confirmed, for which there is still no set date, the conviction would remain on Trump's record, whose legal team has been trying to clear it before next Jan. 20.

Indeed, the case pushed by prosecutor Alvin Bragg was the first criminal prosecution of a former president and the only one to go to trial.

Trump's legal team presented before Merchan that, among the evidence presented by New York prosecutors, some was protected by the doctrine of presidential immunity of the highest court in the country.

On the other side, Bragg's prosecutors argued that the Supreme Court ruling had "no bearing on this proceeding," remarking that his case had to do with actions prior to his first presidency, which ran from January 2017 to January 2021.

"But Mr. Trump’s lawyers seized on a particularly contentious portion of the high court’s ruling, which prohibited prosecutors from introducing evidence involving a president’s official acts even in a case about private misconduct. They argued that testimony from former White House employees had contaminated the verdict," The New York Times explained recently.