A federal judge has denied President Trump’s latest legal bid to transfer his New York criminal hush money case to federal court.
The ruling Friday cements Mr. Trump’s state-level conviction on 34 felony counts for falsifying business records and blocks his attempt to overturn it under presidential immunity.
Judge Alvin Hellerstein, a Clinton appointee, said that the president’s arguments to seek removal of the case to federal court were “neither new nor legally sufficient.”
Mr. Trump received an unconditional discharge in January of last year following his historic criminal conviction in New York after a Manhattan jury found him guilty on all 34 felony counts of falsifying business records.
Former Trump attorney Michael Cohen paid adult film actress Stormy Daniels $130,000 in the final weeks of the 2016 presidential campaign, and Mr. Trump’s business records masked the reimbursements as routine legal expenses.
He became the first former U.S. president to be convicted of a felony.
“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,” Judge Hellerstein wrote in a 35-page filing published Friday, adding that an affair, or a cover-up of an affair, is not within the “’outer perimeter’ of the President’s official responsibilities.”
This marks the third time Judge Hellerstein has blocked an attempt to shift and dismiss the case in federal court, and Friday’s ruling was the second time Judge Hellerstein had denied Mr. Trump’s request that his criminal case be handled in U.S. District Court in Manhattan.
The 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ordered Judge Hellerstein in November to reconsider his decision to keep the case in state court, after a three-judge panel found he had failed to consider “important issues relevant” to Mr. Trump’s removal request.
The president’s separate appeal through the state court system remains ongoing.
His legal team argued that the Supreme Court’s landmark 2024 decision, which found that former presidents enjoy immunity for certain acts in their constitutional scope of office, applied to state prosecutions and invalidated testimony involving official acts from his first term.
Judge Hellerstein repeatedly rejected the removal attempts, ruling that the payments and cover-up regarding hush money were private, unofficial acts not protected by presidential immunity and that Mr. Trump’s request was untimely.
“Trump seeks a ’second bite at the apple,’ a result the law disfavors,” he wrote.
A spokesperson for Mr. Trump’s legal team said that the president will be filing a “powerful” appeal and will “continue defeating Democrat weaponization at every turn.”
“The Supreme Court’s historic decision on Immunity, the Federal and New York State Constitutions, and other established legal precedent mandate that the Witch Hunt perpetrated by the Manhattan DA be removed to federal court, and immediately overturned and dismissed,” the spokesperson said in a statement.
