Judge rejects Trump hush money case transfer bid

A federal judge in Manhattan on Friday again refused to move President Donald Trump’s New York hush money case to federal court, blocking his latest attempt to erase the criminal conviction that made him the first former — and now current — U.S. president found guilty of a crime.

U.S. District Judge Alvin Hellerstein rejected Trump’s renewed request to take the case from New York state court and dismiss it on presidential immunity grounds. The judge said Trump’s arguments were “neither new nor legally sufficient,” including claims that testimony by former aides and a lawyer, as well as his social media statements, infringed on presidential immunity.

“They do not; paying hush money to an adult film star or engaging in a cover-up of an embarrassment are not subsumed in presidential immunity,” Hellerstein wrote, referring to the $130,000 payment to adult film actor Stormy Daniels.

Trump was convicted in 2024, between his two presidential terms, on 34 felony counts of falsifying business records. Prosecutors said he concealed the payment to Daniels to avoid damaging publicity during his 2016 presidential campaign. Daniels said she had an affair with Trump years earlier, while he was married. Trump has denied the affair and any wrongdoing related to the payment.

The case centered on a payment allegedly made through Trump’s former fixer, Michael Cohen, to buy Daniels’s silence. Falsifying business records is normally a misdemeanor in New York, but it can be charged as a felony when prosecutors allege it was committed to advance another crime. In this case, prosecutors argued Trump sought to unlawfully influence the 2016 election, which he won.

Judge Juan Merchan sentenced Trump on Jan. 10, 2025, days before his second inauguration, to an unconditional discharge. The sentence carried no jail time, fine or other restrictions, but left the convictions on his record. Trump is also challenging the conviction through the state appellate process.

Hellerstein has now rejected Trump’s effort to move the case to federal court three times: after his March 2023 indictment, after his trial, and again on Friday. Trump’s lawyers have argued that the case should be dismissed under the Supreme Court’s July 2024 decision on presidential immunity, which held that presidents and former presidents cannot be prosecuted for official acts and that prosecutors cannot use official acts as evidence that unofficial actions were illegal.

Trump’s legal team said it would appeal Friday’s ruling, calling it “baseless and lawless.”

“The Supreme Court’s historic decision on Immunity, the Federal and New York State Constitutions, and other established legal precedent mandate that the Witch Hunt perpetrated by the Manhattan DA be removed to federal court, and immediately overturned and dismissed,” the team said in a statement to The Associated Press. “President Trump will be filing a powerful appeal, and will continue defeating Democrat weaponization at every turn.”

State prosecutors did not immediately respond to a request for comment, CBS News reported.

The 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals had ordered Hellerstein in November to reconsider an earlier decision, saying he had not addressed “important issues relevant” to Trump’s request. The appellate panel did not say how he should rule, but directed him to review evidence Trump claimed involved official acts and to consider whether Trump had diligently sought removal to federal court.

Hellerstein found the conduct at issue was not part of the presidency. “There is no way that discussions regarding hush money payments to cover up the President’s relations with Stormy Daniels could be an official act,” he wrote. “An affair, or a cover-up of an affair, is not within the ‘outer perimeter’ of the President’s official responsibilities.”

The judge also criticized Trump’s timing. After the Supreme Court ruling, Trump’s lawyers first asked Merchan to throw out the verdict instead of immediately returning to federal court. Hellerstein called that a “strategic decision” and said Trump was seeking a “second bite at the apple.”

“Federal district courts are not certifying clerks,” Hellerstein wrote, rejecting the suggestion that his role was merely to certify the state court record for appeal.