Trump Again to Test Path to Clear NY Criminal Fraud Conviction

President Donald Trump will get another shot Wednesday at trying to erase his criminal fraud conviction in New York as he seeks to transfer the case to a federal court where he can revive his claim of presidential immunity.

A jury found Trump guilty of 34 felonies in 2024 for falsifying business records to hide a $130,000 hush-money payment to adult film star Stormy Daniels. He’s appealing the conviction in state court in a process that could take years. But the president also is trying to get the case transferred to federal court, after the fact, to get the verdict thrown out.

At stake for Trump, now in his second and final term in office, is whether his legacy will include being the first US president to be convicted of a crime.

US District Judge Alvin Hellerstein, who will hear oral arguments Wednesday, has twice rebuffed Trump’s bids to move the case to his Manhattan federal court. The first was before a 2024 US Supreme Court ruling that gave presidents broad immunity from criminal charges, while the second came after the high court ruled.

The 92-year-old Hellerstein is revisiting the issue because a federal appeals court instructed him to reconsider whether federal law allows the case to be transferred after the trial’s conclusion and whether Trump had “good cause” for filing the late request.

The president previously tried to move the case to federal court in 2023, using a law that allows federal officials to do so if they’re facing state cases over their actions in office. At that time, the move was part of a strategy to derail the criminal trial.

Hellerstein ruled against him then, saying that “hush money paid to an adult film star is not related to a President’s official acts.” The judge added, “It does not reflect in any way the color of the President’s official duties.”

Trump’s latest bid to transfer the case comes after the Supreme Court’s landmark ruling found presidents have broad immunity from prosecution for official acts in office. The ruling also blocks prosecutors from introducing evidence relating to official acts to prove unofficial criminal conduct.

Trump has repeatedly said the trial was “rigged” and that he’s innocent of the charges.

If the case is moved to federal court, that would take the appeal out of New York’s courts and provide a quicker route to getting the case in front of the conservative majority on the current Supreme Court.

Hellerstein ruled against Trump’s second bid to remove the case in 2024. The federal appeals court in November vacated the ruling and sent the request back to the judge to consider the Supreme Court’s immunity ruling and other questions raised on the appeal.

Lawyers for New York prosecutors have argued to Hellerstein that Trump waited too long to ask, for a second time, to move the case to federal court.

“Defendant’s lack of reasonable diligence and the extremely late stage of this criminal proceeding weigh heavily against a finding of good cause” for filing 16 months after the original 30-day deadline and three months after his conviction, New York prosecutors said in a court filing.

Trump’s team claims prosecutors working for the Manhattan District Attorney improperly introduced evidence during the trial relating to his official acts. Trump’s lawyers also argued they couldn’t have raised the issue until after the Supreme Court’s immunity ruling made clear that the state court judge’s decision to allow it was wrong.

Trump’s appeal of the conviction should go forward in the Manhattan-based federal appeals court, they said.

“That is where this case, unparalleled in our country’s history, now belongs,” they said in a court filing.

The case is: People of the State of New York v. Trump, 23-cv-03773, US District Court, Southern District of New York (Manhattan).