There is very little chance that Donald Trump will succeed in overturning his secret conviction in cash, a former Manhattan prosecutor has said.
Speaking on the CAFE Insider podcast on Tuesday, former Manhattan federal prosecutor Preet Bharara said a successful appeal was imaginable but highly unlikely.
“I think it is very likely that this resolution will not be overturned on appeal on this basis. But since I’ve been doing this for a long time, I’ve already been amazed at how a high court, whether it’s the highest court in the state or the highest court in the state. The country’s court is hunting down a factor that most of us practitioners of crime have a clear and fair idea of. This has happened in the cases I have brought,” he said.
Trump, the presumptive Republican presidential nominee, has been tried in New York on 34 counts of falsifying records of secret invoices made to adult film actress Stormy Daniels.
On May 30, a jury found him guilty of all 34 counts.
Newsweek requested comment by email to Trump’s lawyer on Wednesday.
Bharara said Trump has a number of issues he is likely to appeal to. “The likelihood of a reversal on any of those issues is low,” Bharara said.
“In general, the percentage of cases that are overturned on appeal is very, very low. And that’s because prosecutors, in general, are very cautious. “
“And judges are reluctant to overturn jury verdicts, in general, because that’s how our formula works. They are not afraid to do so. They do it from time to time. “
Bharara was one of dozens of federal prosecutors replaced by Trump when he took office.
He in a verbal exchange with another former federal prosecutor, Joyce Vance, who is a common critic of Trump.
Vance agreed that the appeal is unlikely to succeed.
“In practically each and every one of the appeals of the criminals, you see the defense claim that the evidence was not enough. The evidence did not determine the verdict. And we’ll definitely see that argument in the appeal here. I don’t think it holds up anywhere,” she said.
“Trump’s lawyers also argued about the location of the trial, which had not been attempted in Manhattan. And this one, and we’ve discussed it in the past, is probably not going anywhere either,” he added.
“So that leaves them with a whole series of arguments about Stormy Daniels’ testimony and the judge’s ruling that he would let in a lot of Trump’s previous wrongdoing for the prosecution to use in cross-examination,” Vance said.
Sean O’Driscoll is an Ireland-based senior crime and court reporter for Newsweek. Its objective is to inform about American law. He has covered human rights and extremism extensively. Sean joined Newsweek in 2023 and has previously worked for The Guardian, The New York Times, BBC, Vice and others in the Middle East. He specialized in human rights issues in the Persian Gulf and led a three-month investigation into labor rights violations for the New York Times. In the past it was founded in New York for 10 years. He is a graduate of Dublin City University and is a qualified lawyer in New York and an Irish notary.
You can reach Sean by emailing s. odriscoll@newsweek. com. Languages: English and French.
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