USA News: Trump wants to create a new federal agency for customs collections

Trump has repeatedly spoken of a “political witch hunt” in connection with the hush money trial, including shortly before the verdict was announced, to which he was connected from his residence in Mar-a-Lago. “I am completely innocent, I did nothing wrong,” said Trump, who did not testify during the actual trial.

Legally, Trump had unsuccessfully defended himself all the way up to the Supreme Court against the sentence being announced so shortly before he took office. In ten days, on January 20th, he will replace Joe Biden as US President.

Now that Trump has been officially convicted, he can appeal the decision. However, in the New York case, he cannot pardon himself if he becomes president soon. He lacks the authority to do this at the state level New York Times writes.

In his effort to overturn the guilty verdict, Trump is citing a Supreme Court decision that US presidents enjoy extensive immunity for actions while in office. However, the New York judge declared in December that the decision did not apply in the present case because the disputed hush money payments were made before Trump’s first presidency from 2017 to 2021. Furthermore, these were acts as a private citizen.

The Supreme Court had also decided at the time that official acts of US presidents could not be used as evidence in criminal proceedings. The issue is likely to become an issue at the latest in an appeal process that could end up back in front of the Supreme Court.