New York Gov. Kathy Hochul (D) said President-elect Trump would need to show remorse if he wanted to receive a pardon for his conviction in his hush money case.
“There is a pardoning process in the state of New York. It is lengthy,” Hochul said Wednesday at an unrelated news conference. “It requires a couple of elements. One is remorse.”
Hochul said no one will be treated better or worse than another in her pardoning process.
“No one will be treated any better, or any worse, by me when I make those life altering decisions as we’re looking at petitions that are coming in throughout the year,” she said. “So, no one gets extra favors, no one gets treated worse.”
Judge Juan Merchan shot down Trump’s latest effort to dismiss the guilty verdict and conviction in his criminal hush money case on Monday.
The president-elect argued that during the trial, the Manhattan district attorney’s office showed jurors five categories of evidence that were in conflict with the Supreme Court’s presidential immunity ruling from earlier this year.
Merchan has not yet ruled on Trump’s efforts to toss the case entirely now that he is set to become president again.
Trump was convicted on 34 counts of falsifying business records connected to a $130,000 hush money payment made to adult film star Stormy Daniels before the 2016 election. It was the first criminal prosecution of a former president.
Since it is a conviction in state court, a presidential pardon from President Biden, or Trump himself once he takes office, cannot apply to the case. Presidential pardons can only be applied to federal crimes.
