Judge rejects Trump’s bid to throw out Stormy Daniels hush money conviction

The Trump Court was careful to acknowledge that 'The President, charged with enforcing federal criminal laws, is not above them,

Merchan wrote, quoting from the landmark June SCOTUS decision granting presidents broad immunity from prosecution

This case involves important federal questions,

Trump's lawyers had argued just one month after his indictment, because the charges related to conduct "committed while he was President of the United States" and acting within "the color of his office."

Multiple accommodations well short of dismissal... would satisfy that objective, including a stay of proceedings during his term in office,

the prosecutor's office said ahead of Merchan's ruling

This remedy would prevent defendant from being

prosecutors wrote,

President Trump’s Twitter posts fall well within the core authority of the Nation’s Chief Executive,

they wrote in a court filing

Defendant’s motion to dismiss the indictment and verdict is denied,

Judge Juan Merchan wrote in a ruling Monday

Even if this Court were to deem all of the contested evidence, both preserved and unpreserved, as official conduct falling within the outer perimeter of Defendant's Presidential authority, it would still find that the People's use of these acts as evidence of the decidedly personal acts of falsifying business records poses no danger of intrusion on the authority and function of the Executive Branch, a conclusion amply supported by non-motive-related evidence."

But Merchan in his ruling Monday wrote

This Court concludes that if error occurred regarding the introduction of the challenged evidence, such error was harmless in light of the overwhelming evidence of guilt,

Merchan wrote

This lawless case should have never been brought, and the Constitution demands that it be immediately dismissed,

Cheung said in a statement

The sooner these hoaxes end, the sooner our country can unite behind President Trump for the betterment of all Americans."

Cheung added

Today’s decision by deeply conflicted, acting Justice Merchan in the Manhattan DA Witch Hunt is a direct violation of the Supreme Court’s decision on immunity, and other longstanding jurisprudence,

Trump spokesman and incoming White House communications director Steven Cheung told Fox News Digital