Unlike his other three criminal indictments, Trump had not argued he was immune from his 34 charges in the hush money case, which stems from payments made before he was president.
But the former president insisted that some of prosecutors’ desired trial evidence would be precluded if the Supreme Court agrees with his immunity claims in another cases.
The ruling moves his hush money prosecution one step closer to reaching trial. Trump does still have a pending effort to adjourn the schedule because of “prejudicial pretrial publicity,” however.
The ruling comes as similar decisions on Trump’s immunity claims have caused delays in his other criminal cases. Trump’s claims of presidential immunity reached the Supreme Court earlier this year in his federal election interference case.
But that doesn’t mean the former president’s theory that he cannot be criminally prosecuted hasn’t been rejected before.
“For the purpose of this criminal case, former President Trump has become citizen Trump, with all of the defenses of any other criminal defendant,” the D.C. Circuit panel overseeing another case wrote in its 57-page decision earlier this year.
“We cannot accept that the office of the Presidency places its former occupants above the law for all time thereafter.”
The Hill’s Zach Schonfeld and Ella Lee have more here.
