Trump Wants to Move DA Alvin Bragg’s Case From State to Federal Court: Lawyer

Former U.S. President Donald Trump is accompanied by members of his legal team, Susan Necheles and Joe Tacopina, as he appears in court for an arraignment on charges stemming from his indictment by a Manhattan grand jury, April 4, 2023. Andrew Kelly/Reuters

Former President Donald Trump’s attorney said Thursday that the former president will attempt to shift his New York City criminal case to a federal court to avoid a state court trial.

The lawyer, Todd Blanche, disclosed his team’s plans during an unrelated hearing on the criminal case on Thursday, according to multiple reports.  If successful, it would possibly give Trump an advantage because it would expand the possible jury pool outside of Manhattan, where the voters heavily supported former President Joe Biden and Democrats.

A federal judge would have to approve the request, while Trump’s lawyers would likely argue that the case raises questions about federal election laws because it involves incidents when Trump was running for president. Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg has alleged that the former president has violated New York state law.

The Epoch Times has contacted both Blanche’s office and the Manhattan District Attorney’s office for comment.

The 45th president entered a not guilty plea to 34 felony counts of falsifying business records in connection to payments that his campaign made during the 2016 presidential contest to silence allegations about an affair. Trump has denied having an affair and also denied any wrongdoing in the case.

Bragg, a Democrat, office accused Trump of carrying out a “catch and kill” scheme during the 2016 campaign to find possible negative stories about him and provide payments to keep them out of the public eye. His office further alleged that the former president hid “dozens of false entries in business records to conceal criminal activity, including attempts to violate state and federal election laws.”

Thursday’s public hearing was the first since Trump was arraigned last month in New York City on the charges, which drew considerable media attention. Since then, Trump, who is the first president to face criminal charges in U.S. history, has made the case a central theme of his 2024 campaign, arguing that Democrats are using the legal system to politically persecute their enemies and prevent him from winning reelection.

Manhattan Supreme Court Justice Juan Merchan, who is overseeing the case, said Thursday that he expects the Trump trial to take place in March or February of next year, according to reports. That’s in the middle of the primary season for the 2024 presidential election.

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Last week, Assistant District Attorney Catherine McCaw filed a motion asking Merchant to ensure that discovery materials in the case can be used by the defense only for the trial, asking that Trump be permitted to view the evidence only with his lawyers.

“Donald J. Trump has a longstanding and perhaps singular history of attacking witnesses, investigators, prosecutors, trial jurors, grand jurors, judges, and others involved in legal proceedings against him, putting those individuals and their families at considerable safety risk,” McCaw wrote in the motion. Further, she alleged that Trump is already criticizing individuals involved in the case, including Bragg, witnesses, and the court itself.

But in response, Trump’s attorneys said the request would be “extremely restrictive” and noted that Trump is a leading GOP candidate for president.

Such a proposal would “[infringe] upon President Trump’s First Amendment right to freely discuss his own character and qualifications for federal office and the First Amendment rights of the American people to hear President Trump’s side of the story,” Trump lawyers .Joe Tacopina, Susan Necheles, and Blanche wrote in their filing.

During Thursday’s hearing, Merchan noted Trump is different than most other defendants.

“Obviously, Mr. Trump is different. It would be foolish for me to say he’s not. He´s the former president of the United States and he´s running again,” he told the court. Because of his popularity and influence, “with that comes responsibility that his words, especially when used in the form of rhetoric, can have consequences,” the judge said.