Former President Trump on Thursday asked a federal court to intervene in his hush money lawsuit, seeking to overturn his conviction and further delay his sentencing, scheduled for next month.
in Submitted late ThursdayTrump's lawyers have asked the federal district court in Manhattan to hear the criminal hush money case, arguing that the state prosecution violates the president's constitutional rights and is inconsistent with Supreme Court rulings on presidential immunity.
The former president was convicted in New York earlier this year of 34 felony counts of falsifying business records, becoming the first former US president to be convicted of a crime. The charges stemmed from his repayment of hush money to porn star Stormy Daniels to his former fixer and lawyer Michael Cohen.
A few months later, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in favor of presidential immunity in a separate case, giving the president broad immunity protections but restricting prosecutors from citing any official acts as evidence to prove that the president's non-official actions violated the law.
The Supreme Court held that former presidents have absolute immunity from prosecution for conduct that falls within their core constitutional duties, such as their interactions with the Department of Justice, and at least a constructive immunity for all other official conduct. The justices maintained the long-standing principle that there is no immunity for purely personal conduct.
A federal judge had already rejected Trump's first attempt last summer to move the hush money lawsuit to federal court, ruling that the suit was unrelated to his official duties as president and was instead a “personal matter.”
It remains unclear how the immunity decision will affect attempts to transfer the case again.
Trump and his lawyers have repeatedly argued that the case is politically motivated and argued in Thursday's filing that moving it to federal court would give them “an impartial forum free from local animosity.”
“Immediate access to such a forum is essential and of the utmost urgency,” Trump lawyers Todd Blanche and Emil Bove wrote. “At stake are the interests of federal agencies related to the presidency, Congressional and Federal Election Commission regulations regarding federal elections, and the integrity of the upcoming 2024 presidential election.”
Trump's motion to dismiss the charges is currently pending before Judge Juan Marchan, but his legal team argues that Marchan has a conflict of interest because of his daughter's work with senior Democratic Party officials.
“The ongoing litigation will continue to cause direct and irreparable harm to President Trump as a leading candidate for the 2024 Presidential election and to voters far beyond Manhattan,” Trump's lawyers wrote.
Trump's lawyers argued that the court is violating Trump's First Amendment rights by continuing a gag order on his public comments about many of the people involved in the case.
The request is pending under Marchan, and the district attorney's office has opposed lifting the restrictions at least until after Trump's sentencing.
If the case goes to federal court, Trump's legal team has indicated it intends to move to overturn the ruling and dismiss the case.
Trump was originally scheduled to be sentenced in July in the hush-money case, but Marchan postponed the sentencing until September 18 at the earliest.
The Manhattan District Attorney's Office, which prosecuted the case, declined to comment on the complaint.
