Trump signals appeal of failed bid to move criminal case to federal court

MANHATTAN (CN) — Donald Trump isn’t giving up his fight to move his hush money case from state to federal court. The former president is appealing a Tuesday ruling by U.S. District Judge Alvin Hellerstein that rejected federal removal, according to court documents.

Trump filed a notice of appeal late Tuesday night, signaling his intent to challenge the judge’s assertion that he failed to present good cause to move the case to Hellerstein’s courtroom in the Southern District of New York.

“Removal should not be permitted,” Hellerstein wrote Tuesday in a four-page decision. “Good cause has not been shown, and leave to remove the case is not granted.”

Trump filed a notice of removal last week to move the Manhattan criminal case to federal court, where he vowed to argue against his May conviction and try to delay his Sept. 18 sentencing on the back of the U.S. Supreme Court’s recent presidential immunity decision. The former president also argued he had suffered direct and irreparable harm in the state proceedings under New York Supreme Court Justice Juan Merchan.

Merchan, Trump claims, is a biased judge who tilted the proceedings in prosecutors’ favor. Trump complained repeatedly that Merchan’s daughter’s work as a political consultant for Democrats — a relationship that a New York judicial ethics panel ruled last year has no bearing on Merchan’s fairness as a judge — is a conflict that should have him recused from the case. 

Trump sought an “unbiased forum, free from local hostilities” to fight his criminal charges ahead of his sentencing. 

But Hellerstein, who ruled against a 2023 removal request from Trump in this same case, was unconvinced. The judge ruled that he “does not have the jurisdiction to hear Mr. Trump’s arguments concerning the propriety of the New York trial” and that Trump’s presidential immunity argument doesn’t warrant moving the case to his federal courtroom.

“Nothing in the Supreme Court’s opinion affects my previous conclusion that the hush money payments were private, unofficial acts, outside the bounds of executive authority,” Hellerstein ruled.

Trump's removal effort is largely seen as his latest tactic to throw a wrench in his hush money conviction. Legal analyst and criminal defense attorney Jeffrey Evan Gold noted that Trump’s application of removal deviates from the norm.

“The majority of removal cases are a federal worker, like a postal worker, who is in an auto accident,” Gold told Courthouse News on Wednesday. “Removal, in its mundane use, is about a federal worker saying, 'You've got to sue me in federal court, you can't just sue me in state court.' That’s the routine thing.”

“Trump has taken everything to the Nth degree here,” Gold added. “I don’t think it goes anywhere.”

Trump has two additional efforts pending that could blow up his conviction. He previously asked Merchan to toss the jury verdict altogether, claiming the Supreme Court’s presidential immunity ruling meant certain evidence should have been withheld from the jury. Merchan is set to rule on that argument on Sept. 16. 

Additionally, Trump wants Merchan to delay his sentencing until after the November presidential election. Merchan is expected to rule on that ask in the coming days.

Trump was convicted in May on all 34 felony counts of falsifying business records, which were part of an illicit hush money scheme tied to his 2016 presidential run. The Manhattan jury found that Trump ordered his then-lawyer Michael Cohen to pay adult film star Stormy Daniels $130,000 to keep her quiet about a tryst she had with Trump 10 years prior. 

The jury ruled that Trump then forged business records to repay Cohen, falsely labeling invoices, ledger entries and checks as payments for standard legal fees.

Trump, the first president in U.S. history to be convicted of a felony, could face prison time for his crimes. He continues to deny any wrongdoing, or that he had sex with Daniels at all.

Follow @Uebey

Subscribe to Closing Arguments

Sign up for new weekly newsletter Closing Arguments to get the latest about ongoing trials, major litigation and hot cases and rulings in courthouses around the U.S. and the world.

Email *

Submit