A federal judge on Friday rejected President Donald Trump’s latest attempt to move his New York criminal case into federal court, dealing another legal setback to his effort to challenge the conviction on presidential immunity grounds.
U.S. District Judge Alvin Hellerstein, a former President Bill Clinton appointee, ruled that Trump waited too long to seek removal and failed to provide legally sufficient grounds for transferring the case.
“The grounds for a second removal cited by Defendant, Donald J. Trump, are neither new nor legally sufficient,” Hellerstein wrote. “He has failed to show good cause and diligence.”
Hellerstein has now rejected Trump’s efforts to move the case to federal court three times. An appeals panel previously ordered him to reconsider the request after finding that he had too quickly dismissed some of Trump’s arguments.
On Friday, however, Hellerstein reaffirmed his earlier conclusion and determined that Trump’s conviction would withstand his presidential immunity claim.
Trump immediately asked the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals to reverse the decision.
A Manhattan jury convicted Trump on 34 counts of falsifying business records tied to a $130,000 hush money payment made to adult film actress Stormy Daniels to conceal an alleged affair.
Michael Cohen, Trump’s former fixer, made the payment and became a key prosecution witness. Cohen, once a bitter Trump enemy, has recently reconciled with his former boss and claimed he was coerced into testifying. Trump has said Cohen was “weaponized.”
The Manhattan prosecution was one of four criminal cases Trump faced while campaigning to return to the White House. It was the only case that proceeded to trial, while the others were dismissed.
Trump continues to appeal his conviction through New York’s state court system but has sought to bring his presidential immunity arguments before a federal judge.
Federal law allows officials to transfer prosecutions involving acts performed under the authority of their office. The provision is intended to prevent state interference and provide federal officials with a neutral forum.
Trump first attempted to move the case before trial, but Hellerstein rejected the request. After Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s office secured the conviction, Trump tried again, citing the Supreme Court’s ruling granting former presidents broad immunity from criminal prosecution for official acts.
Hellerstein rejected that argument.
“Paying hush money to an adult film star or engaging in a cover-up of an embarrassment are not subsumed in presidential immunity,” he wrote.
Every judge who has directly considered Trump’s immunity argument has rejected it.
Trump’s legal team called Friday’s ruling “baseless and lawless” and said it contradicted the appeals court’s previous decision.
“The Supreme Court’s historic decision on Immunity, the Federal and New York State Constitutions, and other established legal precedent mandate” that the case be transferred, overturned and dismissed, a Trump spokesperson said.
The Manhattan district attorney’s office declined to comment.
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