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Trump asks judge to throw out conviction in New York “hush money” case
Former President Donald Trump is seeking to have his recent criminal conviction in New York tossed out, and his indictment dismissed, his lawyers said in a filing made public Thursday.
Trump’s lawyers say a recent Supreme Court decision on presidential immunity proves they were correct in arguing before the trial that certain evidence and testimony should have been withheld from the jury, because they were related to protected official acts of the presidency.
The Supreme Court found that former presidents have broad immunity for official acts, and barred evidence involving those acts from being used in prosecutions over unofficial activity. Trump was convicted in May of 34 counts of falsification of business records for an effort to cover up reimbursements for a “hush money” payment to an adult film star as he ran for office in 2016.
The reimbursements, to Trump’s ex-attorney Michael Cohen, were issued while Trump was president. Cohen said he was the target of a 2018 “pressure campaign” tied to Trump’s White House, designed to keep Cohen from cooperating with law enforcement investigating the “hush money” scheme.
Lawyers for Trump said in their filing that much of the testimony and evidence introduced at trial that related to Trump’s time in office should not have been allowed, including testimony by former White House communications director Hope Hicks, former director of Oval Office operations Madeleine Westerhout, tweets issued by Trump during his presidency, and Trump’s disclosures to the Office Of Government Ethics.
Lawyers who spoke to CBS News recently said Justice Juan Merchan, the judge who presided over Trump’s trial, could conclude that while some evidence should not have been shown at trial, it’s not enough to set aside the verdict.
The seven-week trial included more than 100 hours of testimony from 22 witnesses, and reams of evidence.
“If there’s enough evidence beyond the ‘official acts’ to sustain the conviction, then it would be what the courts call ‘harmless error,'” said Gary Galperin, a Cardozo Law School professor and former Manhattan prosecutor. “No trial is perfect. And the criminal justice system doesn’t anticipate or expect perfection.”
Trump’s lawyers argued in their filing that “presidential immunity errors are never harmless.”
“The harmless-error doctrine cannot save the trial result,” they wrote. “The Supreme Court’s constitutional analysis…forecloses harmless-error analysis.”
Prosecutors for Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s office have until July 24 to file a response to Trump’s motion. Merchan has said he will rule on Sept. 6, and if Trump’s motion fails, sentencing will take place on Sept. 18.
Trump, who is again running for president, could be sentenced to up to four years in jail, but Merchan has wide leeway and can hand down a fine, probation, or other punishments that don’t involve incarceration.
NEW YORK — The Teamsters union is launching a strike against Amazon at numerous locations across the country, including in Maspeth, Queens.
The Teamsters are calling it the largest strike against Amazon in United States history, and it’s set to begin at 6 a.m. Thursday. In addition to New York City, workers will be joining picket lines in Atlanta, Southern California, San Francisco and Illinois.
In a video announcement released Wednesday night, workers voiced their frustrations.
“Us being strike ready means we’re fed up, and Amazon is clearly ignoring us and we want to be heard,” one worker says in the video.
“It’s really exciting. We’re taking steps for ourselves to win better conditions, better benefits, better wages,” another worker in the video says.
The union says it represents about 10,000 Amazon employees and that Amazon ignored a deadline to come to the table and negotiate. The $2 trillion company doesn’t pay employees enough to make ends meet, the union asserts.
At the height of the holiday season, many are wondering what this means for packages currently in transit.
Teamsters President Sean O’Brien said, “If your package is delayed during the holidays, you can blame Amazon’s insatiable greed.”
Amazon says Teamsters are misleading the public
An Amazon spokesperson says the Teamsters are misleading the public and do not represent any Amazon employees, despite any claims.
“The truth is that the Teamsters have actively threatened, intimidated, and attempted to coerce Amazon employees and third-party drivers to join them, which is illegal and is the subject of multiple pending unfair labor practice charges against the union,” the spokesperson said in a statement.
An Amazon representative says the company doesn’t expect operations to be impacted.
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Wisconsin school shooter was in contact with California man plotting his own attack, court documents say
The shooter who killed a student and teacher at a religious school in Wisconsin brought two guns to the school and was in contact with a man in California whom authorities say was planning to attack a government building, according to authorities and court documents that became public Wednesday.
Police were still investigating why the 15-year-old student at Abundant Life Christian School in Madison shot and killed a fellow student and teacher on Monday before shooting herself, Madison Police Chief Shon Barnes told the Associated Press Wednesday. Two other students who were shot remained in critical condition on Wednesday.
A Southern California judge issued a restraining order Tuesday under California’s gun red flag law against a 20-year-old Carlsbad man. The order requires the man to turn his guns and ammunition into police within 48 hours unless an officer asks for them sooner because he poses an immediate danger to himself and others.
Carlsbad is located just north of San Diego.
According to the order, the man told FBI agents that he had been messaging Natalie Rupnow, the Wisconsin shooter, about attacking a government building with a gun and explosives. The order doesn’t say what building he had targeted or when he planned to launch his attack. It also doesn’t detail his interactions with Rupnow except to state that the man was plotting a mass shooting with her.
CBS’ San Diego affiliate KFMB-TV reported that law enforcement searched the man’s home Tuesday night after the order was signed by the judge.
Police, with the assistance of the FBI, were scouring online records and other resources and speaking with the shooter’s parents and classmates in an attempt to determine a motive for the shooting, Barnes told the AP.
Police don’t know if anyone was targeted in the attack or if the attack had been planned in advance, the chief said. Police said the shooting occurred in a classroom where a study hall was taking place involving students from several grades.
“I do not know if if she planned it that day or if she planned it a week prior,” Barnes said. “To me, bringing a gun to school to hurt people is planning. And so we don’t know what the premeditation is.”
On a Madison city website providing details about the shooting, police disclosed Wednesday that two guns were found at the school, but only one was used in the shooting. A law enforcement source previously told CBS News the weapon used appears to have been a 9 mm pistol.
Barnes told the AP that he did not know how the suspected shooter obtained the guns and he declined to say who purchased them, citing the ongoing investigation.
No decisions have been made about whether Rupnow’s parents might be charged in relation to the shooting, but they have been cooperating, Barnes told the AP.
Abundant Life is a nondenominational Christian school that offers prekindergarten classes through high school. About 420 students attend the institution.
The Dan County Medical Examiner’s Office identified the two people killed Wednesday as 42-year-old Erin West and 14-year-old Rubi Vergara.
An online obituary on a local funeral site stated Vergara was a freshman who leaves behind her parents, one brother, and a large extended family. It described her as “an avid reader” who “loved art, singing and playing keyboard in the family worship band.”
West’s exact position with the school was unclear.