New York Governor Says Trump Needs to Show Remorse Before Considering Pardon

FILE - New York Gov. Kathy Hochul speaks at a press conference on Nov. 26, 2024, in the Queens borough of New York. AP Photo/Julia Demaree Nikhinson, File

New York Gov. Kathy Hochul said on Thursday that President-elect Donald Trump would need to show remorse before she considered pardoning him on the criminal conviction in the falsified business records case.

“There is a pardoning process in the state of New York,” she said in a press conference. “It is lengthy. It requires a couple of elements. One is remorse.”

On Monday, Manhattan Judge Juan Merchan refused to throw out the conviction, denying Trump’s legal argument that the prosecutor relied on evidence connected to Trump’s official actions when president.

Trump’s legal team cited a U.S. Supreme Court ruling on presidential immunity from earlier this year. Former presidents have broad immunity from prosecution “for actions within his conclusive and preclusive constitutional authority,” Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts wrote in his opinion in July.

In addition, prosecutors can’t build a case using those actions to prosecute cases targeting the personal conduct of a president, the highest court ruled.

Merchan said that Trump waited too long or failed to preserve objections to evidence and that the conduct examined in the case were unofficial acts not protected by presidential immunity.

“This Court … finds that the evidence related to the preserved claims relate entirely to unofficial conduct and thus, receive no immunity protections,” Merchan wrote in an order and letter to attorneys on Dec. 16.

In May, Trump was convicted of 34 felony counts of falsifying business records, making him one of the first U.S. presidents to be convicted of a crime, a verdict that Trump and many Republicans decried as politically motivated.

The conviction stemmed from the allegation that Trump paid adult film actress Stephanie Clifford, also known by her stage name Stormy Daniels, $130,000 in 2016 to keep her from speaking about an alleged sexual encounter said to have taken place around a decade prior. Trump denies both the payment and the alleged encounter.

Trump’s legal team cited Sen. John Fetterman (D-Penn.), who compared the case against Trump to another against Hunter Biden, stating that if President Joe Biden can pardon his son, then Trump should be pardoned as well because both attempts at prosecution were politically motivated.

“Weaponizing the judiciary for blatant, partisan gain diminishes the collective faith in our institutions and sows further division,” Fetterman said on Truth Social.

On Dec. 1, Biden issued a “full and unconditional pardon” for his son, after previously saying he would “abide by the jury decision” and not get involved.

Hunter Biden was charged with nine counts of federal tax evasion to the sum of $1.4 million between 2016 and 2019 and illegally purchasing a firearm while on drugs. He pleaded guilty to the tax charges in September after a previously negotiated plea deal fell through.

In his pardon, the president said his son was “being selectively, and unfairly, prosecuted.”

On Trump’s potential pardon, Hochul stated, “No one will be treated any better, or any worse, by me when I make those life-altering decisions.”

Everyone submitting requests for pardons must go through the same process, she said, “whether you’re the president or anybody else.”

The Associated Press, Melanie Sun, and Sam Dorman contributed to this report.