Latest news with #TrumpConviction
Forbes
11-06-2025
- Politics
- Forbes
Trump Hush Money Conviction Back In Court: How Appeals Court Could Kill Criminal Case
President Donald Trump is seeking to erase his 34-count criminal conviction despite facing no sentence for his crimes, as the president and his attorneys will ask a federal appeals court Wednesday to have the 'hush money' case moved to federal court—which would make it easier to have the conviction thrown out. 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.'
The Independent
11-06-2025
- Business
- The Independent
Trump's hush money case is back in court. These judges could decide what happens next
The appeals process begins in earnest on Wednesday, after a New York City jury last year convicted Donald Trump on 34 counts of falsifying business records in connection with a scheme to silence an adult film star, whose story about having sex with Trump threatened to derail his 2016 presidential campaign. That unanimous conviction on May 30 — and a judge's sentencing on January 10 that preserved the historic verdict — ensured that Trump would return to the White House as the first-ever criminally convicted president. The conviction carried no consequences for the president. Still, it left an indelible stain he has so far failed to remove despite successfully fighting off federal indictments that consumed his 2024 campaign. But his legal battle isn't over. On Wednesday, a federal appeals court in Manhattan will hear oral arguments as his attorneys attempt to transfer the case from New York criminal court to federal jurisdiction, a process known as 'removal.' The office of Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg opposes the move, arguing such a case cannot be removed to federal court after a conviction. But attorneys for the president claim that his 'unprecedented prosecution 'belongs there. If the case is moved to federal court, Justice Department lawyers could theoretically dismiss it. In the weeks leading up to the 2016 election, Trump's then-attorney, Michael Cohen, paid Stormy Daniels $130,000 for the rights to her story, one of several so-called hush money schemes the president arranged with tabloid publishers to prevent embarrassing stories from being published anywhere. Trump then reimbursed Cohen in a series of checks, some of which were cut from the White House. Those reimbursements were falsely recorded in accounting records as 'legal expenses,' fulfilling what prosecutors called a conspiracy to influence the 2016 election unlawfully. A weeks-long trial in Manhattan criminal court last year included blockbuster testimony from Cohen, Daniels, White House aides, and Trump's allies. At the same time, emails, phone records, text messages, invoices, checks with Trump's Sharpie-inked signature, and other documents — including a handwritten note from his accountants that outlined the math for Cohen's checks — gave jurors the paper trail. Days before Trump's inauguration, and more than seven months after the jury's decision, New York Justice Juan Merchan handed Trump a sentence that preserved the verdict without any criminal consequences. Manhattan prosecutors and Judge Merchan agreed that the only remaining option for the conclusion of the case — navigating a landmark Supreme Court decision on 'immunity' and the potential interference with his second term — meant abandoning a typical sentence of jail, fines or probation. 'The only lawful sentence' that remained for Trump's crimes is that of an 'unconditional discharge,' Merchan told Trump during his sentencing hearing on January 10. Trump continues to deny any wrongdoing. His attorneys, whom the president has appointed to top roles at the Department of Justice, argued that certain evidence used at trial should have been withheld from jurors under the Supreme Court's 'immunity' decision, which shields the president from criminal prosecution for 'official' acts in office. However, those arguments were rejected by Judge Merchan, the New York appeals court, and the Supreme Court, which stated that Trump's challenges to 'alleged evidentiary violations' could be addressed through the normal course of appeal. Meanwhile, Trump's long-simmering fight to move the case entirely out of the hands of state courts will be heard before a panel of federal appeals court judges. The president has hired the law firm Sullivan & Cromwell to support his federal appeal. Last month, Justice Department lawyers filed a supporting brief in the case, arguing that the judges should throw it out entirely. Trump is simultaneously appealing an $83 million verdict in a defamation case from E. Jean Carroll as well as a massive judgment against him in a sprawling civil fraud case, with interest growing to more than half a billion dollars owed to the state of New York after the president and his top associates defrauded banks and investors to benefit his real-estate empire.
The Guardian
01-06-2025
- Entertainment
- The Guardian
Dragon on Centre Street by Jonah Bromwich review – drama of Trump the felon
Trump Convicted on All Counts to Become America's First Felon President: so blared the New York Times headline on 31 May 2024. 'Donald J Trump was convicted on Thursday of falsifying records to cover up a sex scandal that threatened to derail his 2016 presidential campaign, capping an extraordinary trial that tested the resilience of the American justice system and transformed the former commander in chief into a felon.' Jonah Bromwich shared the byline. From pre-indictment stakeout to arraignment to jury verdict to sentencing, he covered the legal tribulations of the once and future president, a drama for the ages in a courthouse in lower Manhattan. Dragon on Centre Street is his eyewitness account. A former style section writer, Bromwich is mindful of human folly. His first book captures the personalities that filled the corridors of the court and the streets around it, light-hearted one moment, deadly serious the next. 'The first clash between Trump and the criminal court system was shaping up to be the entertainment event of the season,' Bromwich writes, with a touch of glee. The run-up to the arraignment assumed the air of a rock concert or a sports championship. In the words of one Times stringer, it was 'hotter than Springsteen'. 'Professional line sitters, from a company called Same Ole Line Dude, showed up wearing merch advertising the name of their company and toting colorful tents.' Pages later, Bromwich introduces the reader to Max Azzarello, a name now largely forgotten. 'On 7 April 2024, 12 days before he killed himself outside a Manhattan courthouse, [he] ambled downstairs to his neighbors' apartment in St Augustine, Florida, holding a fistful of glow sticks.' Max and a friend, Mandy, wanted to gain the attention of a family of bats who circled overhead, much as the two had played with a pair of stray cats and a toy alligator. 'Cat fishing', they called it. But after the death of his mother in 2022, Max's life had turned dark. Less than two weeks later, in a park across from the court in New York, the 37-year-old set himself on fire. Bromwich's descriptions are insightful – at times, withering. 'His color, created for the camera, looks strange at close range,' he writes of Trump at his arraignment, in April 2023. 'So does his hair, coiffed in the front but threadbare in the back, such that someone sitting behind him for weeks at a time sees a different patch of his scalp each day.' But Bromwich also gives Trump his due. 'In person, it was easier to see the fundamentals – how tall he was, how imposing – and to sense the way his charisma exerted pressure on those around him.' The competing versions of Trump occupied the same space at the same time. Elsewhere, Bromwich conveys the judgment of Olivia Nuzzi, then a writer for New York magazine, in time tabloid fodder in her own right. Watching the trial on the court's closed-circuit television system, he describes her as 'blown away' by the visuals. 'Stripped of his power, Trump was reduced to a small garish human trapped in the municipal monochrome of the courtroom,' summarizing what she saw. Bromwich recounts the trial testimony of Stormy Daniels, born Stephanie Clifford, the adult film star who Trump paid to keep quiet about the affair she claimed and he denied. Before Daniels took the stand, Sally Franklin, a vice-president at Penguin Random House, read 'telling' excerpts of Trump's books. 'The defense looked stressed,' Bromwich writes. 'There was no doubt that Stormy had enraged Trump, and it was an open question whether he could keep himself in check, even with the threat of jail hanging over his head.' Daniels testified that she spanked Trump. He mouthed 'bullshit'. Isabelle Brourman, a courtroom artist, sketched Trump getting his butt swatted. The show continued. Trump had said she ought to be a contestant on The Apprentice, Daniels said. After all, Daniels reminded him of Ivanka, his daughter: smart, beautiful and underestimated. 'The dizzying feeling in the courtroom was increasing … in the gallery, Eric Trump was slowly turning from pale to pink,' Bromwich observes. Donald Trump cursed and shook his head. Justice Juan Merchan, the trial judge, warned Todd Blanche, Trump's counsel, his client could be held in contempt. 'I'll talk to him,' Blanche said. In all, the court fined Trump $9,000 for contempt and another $1,000 for violating a gag order. Ivanka and Melania, Trump's third wife, never appeared in court. Ditto Jared Kushner, Ivanka's husband, once Donald Trump's chief White House adviser. On the other hand, Trump was supported by the likes of Mike 'Moses' Johnson, the House speaker; JD Vance, then a senator from Ohio, eventually Trump's vice-president; and a phalanx of future cabinet members. 'Those guests who populated the left side of the gallery in [the courtroom] were quickly drafted into Trump's administration,' Bromwich writes. Susie Wiles is chief of staff. Doug Burgum is secretary of the interior. Kash Patel leads the FBI. Trump's lawyers fared well too. Blanche is deputy attorney general. Emil Bove is principal associate deputy attorney general. On Wednesday, Trump nominated him to the US court of appeals for the third circuit, which covers Delaware, New Jersey and Pennsylvania. Maryanne Trump, the president's late sister, once sat on that bench. Facing an ethics investigation, she retired in February 2019. In the courthouse on Centre Street, in May 2024, the Dragon was convicted. It didn't matter: in November, he won the White House again. In January 2025, as he waited to return to power, he faced sentencing. 'The fact is that I'm totally innocent,' Trump announced, via computer. Justice Merchan handed down an unconditional discharge. Ten days later, Trump was back in the Oval Office. Dragon on Centre Street is published in the US by Authors Equity
