Trump: Merchan Ruling Would 'End Presidency as We Know It'

President-elect Donald Trump defiantly struck back at Judge Juan Merchan's refusal to toss his "legal expense" business records conviction in New York, suggesting Merchan's "family's disqualifying and illegal conflicts" are the root cause.

"In a completely illegal, psychotic order, the deeply conflicted, corrupt, biased, and incompetent Acting Justice Juan Merchan has completely disrespected the United States Supreme Court, and its Historic Decision on Immunity," Trump wrote Tuesday on Truth Social. "But even without Immunity, this illegitimate case is nothing but a Rigged Hoax."

"Merchan, who is a radical partisan, wrote an opinion that is knowingly unlawful, goes against our Constitution, and, if allowed to stand, would be the end of the Presidency as we know it."

"Merchan has so little respect for the Constitution that he is keeping in place an illegal gag order on me, your President and President-Elect, just so I cannot expose his and his family's disqualifying and illegal conflicts."

Trump's lawyers argued for the case's full dismissal because of the Supreme Court's ruling presidents have broad immunity for official acts, but prosecutors insist the conviction should stand, and Merchan agreed in Monday's ruling.

"While Deranged Jack Smith was sent packing back to The Hague after losing all of his politically manufactured cases against me, Merchan, who is far worse and even more corrupt than Smith in his fight for my hopeless political opponents, just cannot let go of this charade," Trump wrote in a subsequent Truth Social post Tuesday. "Is it because of his conflicts and relations that he keeps breaking the Law? This has to stop!"

"It is time to end the Lawfare once and for all, so we can come together as one Nation and, Make America Great Again."

That conclusion of his rebuke of the ruling followed his argument that legal scholars disagree with Merchan, too.

"I am the only Political Opponent in American History not allowed to defend myself — A despicable First Amendment Violation!" Trump wrote. "Merchan took the Manhattan D.A.'s Witch Hunt, that, according to all Legal Scholars, including Jonathan Turley, Elie Honig, Andy McCarthy, Alan Dershowitz, Gregg Jarrett, David Rivkin, Elizabeth Price Foley, Katie and Andy Cherkasky, Paul Ingrassia, and many others, is a nonexistent case, barred by the Statute of Limitations, and should have never been brought and, through his fraud and misconduct, gave it a semblance of 'life.'"

A Manhattan jury convicted Trump in May of 34 counts of falsifying business records recording a 2017 payment to disgraced former attorney Michael Cohen a "legal expense." Cohen, who recorded Trump, testified against him, and did jail time, paid Stormy Daniels $130,000 in 2016. Trump denies wrongdoing.

Trump's lawyers cited the Supreme Court opinion to argue the jury got some improper evidence, such as Trump's presidential financial disclosure form, testimony from some White House aides, and social media posts made while he was in office.

In Monday's ruling, Merchan denied the bulk of Trump's claims that some of prosecutors' evidence related to official acts and implicated immunity protections — issues that will ultimately be decided by legal rulings.

The judge said that even if he found that some evidence related to official conduct, he would still conclude that prosecutors' decision to use "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."

Trump communications director Steven Cheung on Monday called Merchan's decision a "direct violation of the Supreme Court's decision on immunity, and other longstanding jurisprudence."

"This lawless case should have never been brought, and the Constitution demands that it be immediately dismissed," Cheung said in a statement.

Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg's office, which prosecuted the case, declined to comment.

Merchan's decision noted that part of the Supreme Court's immunity ruling declared that "not everything the president does is official." Trump's social media posts, for example, were personal, Merchan wrote.

Information from The Associated Press was used in this report.