Donald Trump has found another way to lose his fight over the New York hush money case.
A federal judge on Friday rejected Trump’s latest attempt to move his criminal conviction out of New York state court and into the federal courts — a strategy his lawyers have pursued in hopes of using presidential immunity to get the conviction thrown out.
U.S. District Judge Alvin Hellerstein has now rejected Trump’s attempts to move the case to federal court three times.
And on Friday, he did it again.
Hellerstein ruled that Trump’s latest effort came too late and that, even if the case were moved to federal court, presidential immunity wouldn’t save the conviction.
“The grounds for a second removal cited by Defendant, Donald J. Trump, are neither new nor legally sufficient. He has failed to show good cause and diligence,” Hellerstein wrote.
Trump’s lawyers weren’t exactly inclined to accept that answer.
They quickly asked the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals to overturn the ruling.
The legal maneuver is part of Trump’s broader effort to escape the consequences of the only criminal case against him that actually made it to trial.
Trump was convicted on 34 felony counts of falsifying business records in connection with a $130,000 payment made to adult film performer Stormy Daniels shortly before the 2016 presidential election.
The payment was intended to keep Daniels from publicly discussing her allegation that she had an affair with Trump. Trump has denied the affair.
Trump’s lawyers have argued that the Supreme Court’s landmark 2024 presidential-immunity ruling changed the legal landscape and means the New York conviction should not stand.
Hellerstein wasn’t persuaded.
“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,” the judge wrote.
So far, every judge to directly consider that argument has rejected it.
Trump is still appealing his conviction through New York’s state court system. But his lawyers have repeatedly tried to move the case into federal court, where they could press their presidential-immunity argument.
That’s where things have gotten particularly complicated.
Federal law allows certain federal officials to move a state prosecution into federal court when the case involves conduct performed “under color” of federal office.
Trump’s lawyers have argued that his case qualifies.
The courts have repeatedly disagreed.
Trump first attempted to move the case to federal court before his trial. Hellerstein rejected that effort.
After Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s office secured Trump’s conviction, his lawyers tried again — this time armed with the Supreme Court’s ruling that former presidents enjoy broad immunity from criminal prosecution for official acts.
Trump’s team argued that the immunity ruling meant his New York conviction could no longer survive.
Hellerstein rejected that argument.
Then, in November, the 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals sent the matter back to Hellerstein, ruling that the judge had moved too quickly past some of Trump’s arguments and needed to reconsider the request.
Hellerstein has now reconsidered it.
And Trump has lost again.
The timing is also notable because one of the prosecution’s most important witnesses, Michael Cohen, has recently softened his position toward his former boss.
Cohen, Trump’s former personal attorney and fixer, was the person who made the $130,000 payment to Daniels.
He later became a bitter Trump critic and a key prosecution witness.
More recently, Cohen has said he was coerced into testifying, prompting Trump to argue that Cohen had been “weaponized” against him.
But Cohen’s changed relationship with Trump hasn’t changed the underlying conviction.
The New York case was one of four criminal prosecutions Trump faced while campaigning for another term in the White House.
It was the only one that went to trial.
The other three were ultimately dismissed.
Now Trump is trying to find another route out of the one case that actually resulted in a conviction.
His legal team insists the case should be removed to federal court and dismissed, calling the prosecution a “Witch Hunt” and accusing Manhattan prosecutors of politically motivated “weaponization.”
“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,” a Trump legal spokesperson said.
The spokesperson also claimed Trump had already “prevailed” in the 2nd Circuit and called Hellerstein’s ruling “baseless and lawless.”
The legal reality, at least for now, looks considerably different.
Hellerstein has rejected Trump’s attempt to move the case.
And his conviction remains intact.
