Supreme Court Just Set New Rules of Evidence 'Out of Thin Air'—Attorney

The U.S. Supreme Court 's ruling regarding presidential immunity established new standards "out of thin air" for evidence involving former President Donald Trump's criminal indictments, legal analyst Glenn Kirschner said.

Justices issued a 6-3 ruling on Monday that Trump has complete immunity for any actions he took within his constitutionally defined duties as president, a decision that has sent the former president's federal election interference case back to a lower court to determine which activities listed in the indictment against Trump constitute an official act.

The decision has been widely criticized by legal experts and opponents of the former president. Justice Sonia Sotomayor , who wrote the dissenting opinion for the three liberal justices on the High Court, said that she dissented from the conservative majority "with fear for our democracy" and warned of the ruling's implications.

Speaking with MSNBC on Thursday, Kirschner, an attorney, frequent critic of Trump and former federal prosecutor, rebuked the Supreme Court's ruling and how it is impacting the former president's criminal conviction, who in May was convicted of 34 felony counts of falsifying business records.

"Donald Trump's lawyers are trying to vacate his conviction ... [on] these new rules of evidence, in essence, that the Supreme Court just conjured up out of thin air, and will be applying retroactively to earlier cases," Kirschner said.

Trump's conviction was over hush money paid to adult-film star Stormy Daniels during the 2016 presidential campaign. Daniels said she was paid $130,000 to keep quiet about an affair she had with the former president years 10 years prior. Trump has denied having relations with Daniels.

Kirschner said that the Supreme Court's "new rules" will now pose questions for New York State Supreme Court Justice Juan Merchan , who has presided over Trump's trial.

"You know, the question for Judge Merchan will become, you know, did the evidence that was introduced against Donald Trump in the New York trial somehow violate the new rules that have been handed down by the Supreme Court," Kirschner continued. "In a rational world when we're not living in the legal upside-down, it would seem that everything Donald Trump did, and all of the evidence that was introduced against him, involved nonofficial acts. Much of it, he wasn't even president."

"So, of course he can't claim presidential immunity before he was sworn in. And even though there was evidence that was introduced against him after he was sworn in ... those are very unlikely to be deemed official presidential acts," Kirschner said.

Trump was originally scheduled to face sentencing in the hush money case next week, although Merchan pushed that hearing until September 18 after the former president's attorneys argued that his conviction should now be thrown out following the Supreme Court's decision. Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg , whose office brought the charges against Trump, did not object to the request to delay the sentencing.

Trump has maintained that he is innocent of all wrongdoing and claims that the charges are part of a "political witch hunt" to hurt his reelection chances.

Newsweek sent an email to Trump's campaign on Thursday for comment.