Judge declines to move Trump’s New York hush-money case to federal court

A US appeals court late on Thursday declined to interfere with a lower court decision to keep Donald Trump’s already-decided criminal case, over hush money paid to an adult film star, in state court, dealing another blow to the former US president’s bid to move the case to federal court.

On 29 August, nearly three months after he was convicted in the first-ever criminal trial of a US president, Trump asked US district judge Alvin Hellerstein to move the case from New York state court in Manhattan to federal court, arguing the trial violated his constitutional rights.

Trump, the Republican nominee for president in the 5 November election, said that if the case were moved, he would ask the federal court to dismiss it altogether because jurors at trial saw evidence of his official acts as president.

He said that violated the US supreme court’s landmark decision finding presidents have broad immunity from prosecution for official acts.

Hellerstein denied that request on 3 September, finding that the case dealt with “private, unofficial acts, outside the bounds of executive authority”. Trump asked the second US circuit court of appeals to put that decision on hold while it considered the merits of his appeal.

A three-judge panel at the second circuit denied Trump’s request, citing Judge Juan Merchan’s delay of Trump’s sentencing date to 26 November from 18 September. Merchan wrote that he wanted to avoid the unwarranted perception of a political motive.

Merchan will now decide on 12 November whether the case should be dismissed because of the supreme court’s immunity decision, which stemmed from a separate, federal criminal case Trump faces over his efforts to overturn his 2020 election loss to Joe Biden. Trump has pleaded not guilty in that case, amid many legal woes still hanging over him.

In the New York state case, a jury on 30 May found Trump guilty of felony falsification of business records to hide his former lawyer Michael Cohen’s $130,000 payment to adult film actor and producer Stormy Daniels for her silence before the 2016 election about a sexual encounter she says she had with Trump. The former president denies having sex with Daniels, and has vowed to appeal his conviction once he is sentenced.