Judge blocks Trump bid to shift 34-count hush money case to federal court
What's next: Trump's lawyers appealed, but the ruling keeps his New York conviction in state court for now.
A federal judge in Manhattan rejected President Donald Trump's latest attempt to move his New York hush money criminal case into federal court, leaving in place his state-court conviction on 34 felony counts of falsifying business records. Judge Alvin Hellerstein ruled Friday that Trump's arguments were not new and that he waited too long after both his May 2024 conviction and the Supreme Court's July 2024 immunity decision to seek removal. Trump has argued that some trial evidence involved official presidential acts and should have been barred. Hellerstein wrote that hush money discussions tied to Stormy Daniels were not official acts. Later Friday, Trump's lawyers filed a notice of appeal to the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.