A federal judge on Friday blocked President Donald Trump’s latest effort to move his criminal conviction in a New York hush money case from state to federal court – rejecting a move that would have made it easier to have his conviction tossed.
It is the third time Trump has tried and failed to move the case out of state court.
US District Judge Alvin Hellerstein ruled the president’s newest request was neither ‘new nor legally sufficient’ to justify the switch, adding that Trump ‘has failed to show good cause and diligence.’
He was blunter still about what the case actually involves.
‘There is no way that discussions regarding hush money payments to cover up the President’s relations with Stormy Daniels could be an official act,’ Hellerstein wrote.
‘An affair, or a cover-up of an affair, is not within the ‘outer perimeter’ of the President’s official responsibilities.’
Trump’s lawyers had argued the prosecution was tainted by evidence touching his time in the White House, including testimony and records relating to his presidential role.
They wanted to use the Supreme Court’s landmark 2024 immunity ruling to void the conviction and shift the fight to federal court, where they believed dismissal would come easier.
Trump sits in a courtroom alongside his lawyer Todd Blanche in Manhattan in 2024
Trump sits in a courtroom alongside his lawyer Todd Blanche in 2024
Trump leaves after addressing members of the media following the verdict in his hush-money trial at Trump Tower in New York City
Friday’s defeat followed a Second Circuit Court of Appeals order last year telling Hellerstein to revisit his earlier refusal.
The appeals court did not say Trump was entitled to the move.
It said only that the judge had failed to fully address whether some of the evidence Manhattan prosecutors used could have involved official presidential acts.
Hellerstein also accused Trump’s team of gaming the clock, saying the president made a strategic choice to litigate his immunity claims in New York’s courts first and only went hunting for a federal venue once that failed.
A litigant, he wrote, cannot ‘seek victory in one court, and then, when it becomes apparent that the court will rule against him, seek to remove his case to another court.’
A Manhattan jury convicted Trump in May 2024 on 34 felony counts of falsifying business records, after prosecutors accused him of disguising reimbursements to his former lawyer Michael Cohen as legal fees.
Cohen had paid Daniels $130,000 in the closing weeks of the 2016 campaign to bury her claim of a sexual encounter with Trump, which he denies.
Trump is still fighting the conviction in New York’s state appellate courts. Friday’s ruling leaves the guilty verdict standing and keeps that battle where prosecutors want it.
This is a breaking story. Check back for updates.
Source: DailyMail/
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