'Very unlikely': Ex-Trump lawyer doubts immunity defense can make NY conviction go away
A former attorney for Donald Trump poured cold water on his ex-client's plan to get his felony conviction in the Manhattan hush money case tossed citing the Supreme Court's recent presidential immunity ruling.
The judge in the hush money case delayed the former president's sentencing two months while a lower court judge applies the new standard of immunity for "official acts.
Trump's argument that there was anything "official" about his hush payments to an adult film star — a scheme cooked up without presidential powers and before his 2016 election — will almost certainly not fly, former Trump attorney Tim Parlatore explained to CNN's Pamela Brown.
"How likely is it that Trump ultimately get his conviction overturned?" asked Brown.
"I think it's very unlikely," said Parlatore, who previously helped Trump's defense in the federal investigations against him for Jan. 6 and the classified documents at Mar-a-Lago.
Read also: Trump's 'entirely wrong' bid to get his hush money trial tossed is going nowhere: expert
"Given the Supreme Court's decision, and really we're talking about an admissibility issue, that if there are certain things that are alleged to be criminal, but are in fact immune, that that's not something that can be used at trial for things that are not immune. I think that the reasoning that the Trump team is kind of going for here, at least as far as I can tell, seems to be a bit strained, and I don't think that the idea that you can't introduce anything that a president ever does while they're president, I think goes a little bit far."
Ultimately, Parlatore added, "I think that Judge [Juan] Merchan is doing the right thing of at least having a hearing to make sure he has a full record, but the likelihood of success on this is extraordinarily low."
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