Federal judge denies Trump's request to move hush money case into federal court
A federal judge denied Donald Trump’s request to move the New York hush money case into federal court, finding there is nothing in the Supreme Court’s immunity ruling that alters his view of the facts that the payments were “private, unofficial acts.”
Donald Trump previously filed a petition Thursday seeking to move his New York state criminal case to a federal court in Manhattan and push off the upcoming sentencing for his conviction on 34 counts of falsifying business records.
The petition asked the federal court to confirm the former president cannot be sentenced while the litigation over the removal to federal court is pending.
Judge Alvin Hellerstein said no facts have changed since he previously rejected Trump’s attempt to move the case last year. At the time the judge found that Trump’s reimbursement to Michael Cohen, who facilitated hush money payments to adult film actress Stormy Daniels, were not official acts he took as president.\
“Nothing in the Supreme Court’s opinion affects my previous conclusion that the hush money payments were private, unofficial acts, outside the bounds of executive authority,” Hellerstein wrote in his decision Tuesday.
Trump also claimed the case should be moved into federal court because he alleged Judge Juan Merchan, who presided over the trial, was biased against him. Hellerstein said it was not his place to evaluate the New York trial.
The former president has separately asked Merchan to delay the sentencing until after the election. Prosecutors haven’t opposed that request and the judge could issue a decision as soon as this week. Trump also argued in a motion to Merchan that his conviction should be overturned in light of the Supreme Court immunity decision. The judge said he would rule on that motion on September 16.
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