Trump Cites Immunity and Asks Judge to Throw Out Hush-Money Conviction

Donald J. Trump has asked the judge who oversaw his criminal hush-money trial in Manhattan to throw out his felony conviction now that the Supreme Court has granted Mr. Trump broad immunity from prosecution for official actions he took as president.

In a filing made public on Thursday — the same day Mr. Trump had been initially set to be sentenced for his crimes — his lawyers argued that the recent Supreme Court ruling invalidated the verdict that the former president was guilty on charges of falsifying records related to the hush money during his 2016 presidential run.

The ruling, which was decided 6 to 3 along partisan lines and has drawn condemnation from some legal scholars, dealt a blow to one of Mr. Trump’s separate criminal cases in Washington, in which he is accused of plotting to overturn his 2020 election loss.

Applying that decision to the Manhattan case might be a long shot. The judge, Juan M. Merchan, has appeared skeptical of Mr. Trump’s immunity claims in the past. And even now, the Supreme Court’s ruling appears to have little direct bearing on the conduct for which he was convicted in Manhattan, where he was accused of misdeeds related to his campaign, not official acts during his presidency.

But Mr. Trump’s lawyers have argued that the Manhattan district attorney’s office built its case partly on evidence from his time in the White House. They note that, in the recent ruling, the Supreme Court held that prosecutors cannot cite most evidence involving official acts to prove accusations about private misconduct.

In the filing this week, Mr. Trump’s lawyers cited the trial testimony of two aides who worked for the then-president, including Hope Hicks, his communications director, about events in the White House. The testimony, the defense said, included “official communications.” They also argued that the Manhattan prosecutors should not have invoked tweets and other public statements Mr. Trump made as president.