MANHATTAN (CN) — Donald Trump asked a federal court on Thursday to take over his Manhattan hush money case, his second such effort to get the case moved to the Southern District of New York from the New York Supreme Court.
In a 64-page removal notice filed late Thursday night by Trump’s attorneys Todd Blanche and Emil Bove, the former president argues that the state proceedings under New York Supreme Court Justice Juan Merchan are causing him “direct and irreparable harm.”
“This harm includes First Amendment violations, as Justice Merchan has maintained a post-trial gag order that restricts President Trump from engaging in political advocacy based on valid criticisms of the New York County proceedings,” Trump claimed. “And an entirely unjust sentencing is currently scheduled to occur on September 18, 2024, which could result in President Trump’s immediate and unconstitutional incarceration and prevent him from continuing his groundbreaking campaign.”
Arguing that the state prosecution violated his constitutional rights, Trump urged the federal court to take over his case to give him an “unbiased forum, free from local hostilities” to fight his May conviction.
“The bias, conflicts of interest, and appearances of impropriety reflected in the New York County proceedings demonstrates exactly the type of local hostility toward federal interests — including a former president of the United States and the leading candidate in the 2024 presidential election — that the Supremacy Clause was intended to guard against,” Trump claimed.
Trump added that the recent U.S. Supreme Court ruling for broad presidential immunity should help his case. He attacked Merchan, claiming the judge hasn’t given him a fair shake as he tries to get his conviction vacated on those new grounds.
“President Trump’s post-trial motion to dismiss the indictment and vacate the jury’s verdicts based on presidential immunity is currently pending before Justice Merchan, an acting New York judge facing conflicts of interest and appearances of impropriety who has already forecast his intention to deny the motion by directing the parties to prepare for sentencing in September,” Trump argued.
Trump was convicted earlier this year of 34 counts of falsifying business records, charges that stemmed from an illegal hush money scheme that took place during his 2016 presidential campaign. The jury found that Trump ordered his then-attorney Michael Cohen to pay $130,000 to adult film star Stormy Daniels in order to keep her quiet about a tryst with Trump that took place ten years prior.
When he repaid Cohen for the payment, Trump falsely labeled invoices, leger entries and checks as payments for standard legal fees, running afoul of state law.
Trump’s legal team is already trying to delay his sentencing until after the November election. Thursday’s removal request appears to be their latest attempt to buy time to fight the conviction. If it’s successful and the case is moved to federal court, Trump said he will seek to have the guilty verdict overturned and the case dropped.
“After this case is properly removed, President Trump will establish that the charges must be dismissed,” he wrote Thursday.
Trump has already tried to get the case removed once last year, well before the trial kicked off this spring. At the time, U.S. District Judge Alvin Hellerstein rejected the request, finding that the felony case from Manhattan prosecutors wasn’t connected to Trump’s federal duties as president.
The decision will once again fall to Hellerstein, the Bill Clinton-appointed judge who has handled numerous other high-profile cases in the past — including Cohen’s 2020 prison release.
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