Trump Tries To Move Hush-Money Case To Federal Court
Donald Trump is making a bold attempt to delay his upcoming sentencing next month by requesting to have his case moved to federal court.
Trump, the former president, is facing sentencing on 34 felony counts related to falsifying business records. These charges stem from a high-profile hush-money trial that captured the nation’s attention. The sentencing was initially scheduled for September 18 in a Manhattan state court.
However, Trump’s legal team has already filed a motion to postpone this hearing until after the presidential election in November, where Trump is the Republican nominee.
A new court filing on Thursday, reported by the New York Times, has intensified efforts related to former President Donald Trump’s legal battles.
Related: Trump’s streak of luck in his criminal cases may have come to an end.
Trump’s attorneys, Todd Blanche and Emil Bove, stated in their submission to federal judge Alvin K. Hellerstein that “the ongoing proceedings will continue to cause direct and irreparable harm to President Trump – the leading candidate in the 2024 presidential election – and voters located far beyond Manhattan.”
Meanwhile, trial judge Juan Merchan is already considering a previous request made by Trump’s lawyers in July to delay the sentencing hearing. It remains uncertain how this new motion might influence that ongoing process, according to the Times.
Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg, who is overseeing the case related to payments Trump made to adult film star Stormy Daniels, previously expressed his belief that the request to delay was without merit. However, he deferred to Judge Merchan’s judgment on the matter.
A jury took less than 12 hours in May to conclude that Trump unlawfully attempted to sway the outcome of the 2016 election by paying $130,000 to Daniels to keep quiet about an alleged affair. Trump, now the first former president to be convicted of felony offenses, faces a potential prison sentence of up to four years. His sentencing, initially set for July 11, has already been delayed once.
The Times reports that Trump’s move to transfer the case from Judge Merchan’s jurisdiction could backfire, potentially further antagonizing the judge. During the trial, Merchan fined Trump for violating a gag order that remains in effect, and he has denied at least three requests from Trump’s legal team for recusal.
In his latest ruling dated August 13, Merchan stated, “The defendant has presented nothing new for this Court to consider. The arguments made by the counsel have already been rejected by this and higher courts, and they are filled with inaccuracies and unsupported claims.”
Hellerstein had previously dismissed a similar request for federal court intervention, which was filed before the trial last year. Trump’s legal team argued that the case should either be dismissed or reviewed by a higher court, citing that it involved actions Trump took as president.
This argument gained further significance after the Supreme Court’s controversial ruling in July, which granted former presidents absolute immunity for official acts performed while in office. This decision compelled special prosecutor Jack Smith to revise a separate case against Trump, related to his attempts to overturn the 2020 election results.
This week, Smith filed a “superseding indictment” that included the same four charges, but with revised wording to emphasize that Trump’s actions were not official acts.
Despite these developments, Hellerstein has already ruled that Trump’s payment to Daniels was not carried out in his presidential capacity.
“The evidence overwhelmingly suggests that the matter was a purely personal item of the president – a cover-up of an embarrassing event,” he wrote in his opinion last year, the Times reported.
“Hush money paid to an adult film star is not related to a president’s official acts. It does not reflect in any way the color of the president’s official duties.”
Blanche and Bove, in the new filing, argue the New York state court system is “inadequate” to handle a case with significant federal implications, and that keeping it there would “result in further irreparable harm to President Trump”.
The Times said it was not clear when Hellerstein would respond to the “unorthodox” filing, or if he would grant a hearing to discuss it.
The hush-money case is one of numerous legal battles Trump has been fighting as he attempts to win back the White House in November.