Trump Hush Money Conviction Back In Court: How Appeals Court Could Kill Criminal Case
The 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals will hear oral arguments Wednesday in Trump's request to have his appeal of his conviction heard in federal court, rather than New York state court, which is where he was convicted last year on 34 counts of falsifying business records.
Trump was convicted on felony charges stemming from hush money payments to adult film star Stormy Daniels, which were made before the 2016 election, with Trump then repaying his then-attorney Michael Cohen through a series of checks throughout 2017.
The president is appealing the case despite facing no sentence for his crimes—due to the logistical issues any sentence would pose with his presidency—and wants to move it to federal court so the case will be thrown out.
If the case was in federal court, Trump could ask to have the conviction dismissed because it involved evidence related to his official acts as president—which a court would be likely to grant, given the Supreme Court ruling last year that Trump can't face criminal charges for any of his 'official duties' as president, including any charges that are based on evidence from his official presidential acts.
The case has so far stayed in state court because judges have ruled the case only concerns Trump's actions as a private citizen, rather than as president: New York Judge Juan Merchan, who oversaw the trial, has thrown out Trump's request to move or throw out the charges, as did U.S. District Judge Alan Hellerstein, who ruled the payments at issue in the case 'were private, unofficial acts, outside the bounds of executive authority.'
The federal appeals court will now take up the issue, and could pave the way for the conviction to be thrown out should they side with Trump and move the case.
The appeals court will hear oral arguments at 10 a.m. Wednesday, though it's unclear how long after that it will take for the court's ruling to come out. If the court agrees with lower court judges and declines to move the case to federal court, Trump could take the dispute to the Supreme Court and ask justices there to rule on his conviction.
Trump will be backed at the federal appeals court by the Department of Justice—which includes the defense attorneys that previously represented him in a personal capacity at his criminal trial. The president appointed his former legal team to high-ranking roles at the DOJ after he won the election, making the lead attorney at his trial, Todd Blanche, the Deputy Attorney General and also elevating attorney Emil Bove, who is now serving at DOJ and has also been nominated to become a federal judge. With his former lawyers now working for the government, Trump will be represented in a personal capacity Wednesday by new attorneys from the firm Sullivan & Cromwell.
A jury in Manhattan found Trump guilty on 34 felony counts following a weekslong criminal trial in May 2024, which marked the only one of Trump's four criminal cases that went to trial. (His charges in Georgia are still pending.) Trump was convicted based on his checks to Cohen reimbursing the lawyer for his payment to Daniels, as prosecutors successfully alleged the checks were falsely labeled as being for legal services. The president has strongly denied the charges and conviction against him and pleaded not guilty, decrying the case as a politically motivated 'witch hunt' against him. After the sentencing got postponed for months in the wake of the Supreme Court's ruling giving Trump some immunity from legal charges, followed by Trump's election, Merchan formally sentenced Trump for his crimes in January. Trump was sentenced to an 'unconditional discharge,' meaning the conviction will stand and Trump can be formally called a 'convicted felon,' but he faces no punishments for his crimes. The judge said at the sentencing that the decision was solely because of Trump's election as president, saying an unconditional discharge is the only 'lawful sentence' that would not '[encroach] upon the highest office in the land.'
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