Trump Asks to Shift Hush Money Trial to Federal Court (Again)

NEW YORK—Defense attorneys for former President Donald Trump have asked a federal court in Manhattan to remove the hush money case against him from state court. The hush money case involves Trump's leadership in a conspiracy to pay off AVN Hall of Famer Stormy Daniels to silence her from speaking about their 2006 affair. A local jury already convicted Donald Trump on 34 felony counts of falsifying business records in the conspiracy to silence Daniels and sway the results of the 2016 election. The latest filing by Trump attorneys Todd Blanche and Emil Bove seeks a pathway to overturn his felony convictions and indefinitely delay his sentencing, currently set for September 18. Juan Merchan, the New York Supreme Court justice presiding over Trump's case, already delayed sentencing to consider the case law and implications of the U.S. Supreme Court's controversial ruling that drastically expanded presidential immunity to cover "official acts." AVN has reported extensively on Trump's legal maneuvers.  Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg already argued in Merchan's court that the Supreme Court's ruling doesn't apply to the vast majority of the hush money case due to Trump's acts in paying off Daniels having been done in his capacity as a private citizen, not in his official capacity as a sitting or former president. Trump's attorneys argue that he is entitled to pause sentencing while the petition to the federal district court is litigated because laws prevent a judgment of conviction before the case is remanded to a court. Blanche and Bove argued in this new 64-page filing to U.S. District Judge Alvin K. Hellerstein that allowing state proceedings "cause direct and irreparable harm" to Trump. This is the second time Trump's lawyers filed such a petition before Hellerstein. During the first petition in 2023, Hellerstein didn't buy the argument. He ruled, "Hush money paid to an adult film star is not related to a president’s official acts." Hellerstein now has to deal with the Supreme Court's ruling on the presidential immunity case. Attorneys working for Bragg's office have already told Merchan that the defense's gambit to overturn the verdict doesn't apply to this case, per AVN's previous reporting. Bragg's prosecutors said, “This case involved evidence of defendant’s personal conduct, not his official acts." The likelihood of Hellerstein granting the defense's removal petition from state court to federal court is very slim. Former federal prosecutor Renato Mariotti opined on X the filing is a "Hail Mary by Trump's team that will likely fail." Mariotti added, "Trump is just trying to push off the criminal sentencing." MSNBC legal correspondent Lisa Rubin and NBC News reporter Phil Helsel wrote that this move "could end up delaying the former president's sentencing."