NEW YORK (BLOOMBERG) -- Donald Trump lost another bid to move a challenge to his New York criminal fraud conviction to a federal court as a judge said that payments to an adult film star don’t constitute an official act that would be covered by presidential immunity.
US District Judge Alvin Hellerstein’s ruled against Trump on the issue for a third time Friday, calling his arguments “specious,” meaning the appeal of the so-called hush money case will continue to proceed in state courts.
A New York jury found Trump guilty of 34 felony charges in 2024 for falsifying business records to hide a $130,000 hush-money payment to adult film star Stormy Daniels. He’s appealing the conviction in state court while also trying to get the case in front of federal appellate judges who might be more open to upending the convictions.
Hellerstein said that “paying hush money to an adult film star or engaging in a cover-up of an embarrassment are not subsumed in presidential immunity.”
“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,” the judge said. “An affair, or a cover-up of an affair, is not within the ‘outer perimeter’ of the President’s official responsibilities.”
Less than two hours after the decision, Trump’s legal team let the judge know they were appealing the ruling to the federal appeals court in New York, a move that could soon put the case in front of the Supreme Court.
“President Trump has already prevailed in this case at the Second Circuit Court of Appeals, and today’s baseless and lawless decision contradicts that correct ruling,” a spokesman for Trump’s legal team said in a statement. Trump has repeatedly said his trial was “rigged” and that he’s innocent.
A spokesperson for Manhattan DA Alvin Bragg declined to comment.
No Sentence
Trump is trying to take advantage of a law that allows federal officials to transfer the state criminal case to federal court if it involves their official actions. At stake for Trump as he approaches the final years of his presidency is whether he’ll continue to carry a legacy as the only US president to be convicted of a felony, even though no sentence was imposed.
Hellerstein has already rejected two moves by Trump to transfer the state case to his Manhattan federal court. The first was before a 2024 US Supreme Court ruling that gave presidents broad immunity from criminal charges, while the second came after the high court ruled.
The Supreme Court in its landmark ruling found that presidents have broad immunity from prosecution for official acts. The ruling also blocks prosecutors from introducing evidence relating to official acts to prove unofficial criminal conduct.
Hellerstein was reviewing the “removal” question for a third time after the federal appeals court in New York ruled he must reconsider several issues in the case, including the effect of the Supreme Court’s immunity ruling.
Trump’s legal strategy has been to consistently challenge decisions that don’t go his way.
Lawyers for Trump and for Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg argued the issue before Hellerstein in February. A lawyer for Trump told the judge that the scope of federal constitutional immunity for the US president should be considered in federal, not state, court.
A member of Bragg’s office said at the hearing that Trump waited too long to move the case to federal court and shouldn’t get two separate tries at overturning the jury’s verdict.
In a filing last month, a lawyer for Trump complained about the time Hellerstein has taken to rule, threatening that if a decision didn’t come within the next several weeks, the president “will have no choice but to seek immediate appellate relief to vindicate his urgent right to a federal forum.”
The judge responded last week saying he expected to rule by Friday.
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