DOJ Backs Trump Bid to Move Falsified Business Records Case to Federal Court

The department says it has an interest in protecting federal officials who face personal legal risk under state law.

U.S. President Donald Trump leaves after hosting a Women's History Month event at the White House in Washington, D.C., U.S., March 26, 2025. REUTERS/Evelyn Hockstein

The Department of Justice (DOJ) on March 26 backed President Donald Trump’s effort to move his already-decided falsification of business records case to federal court, where he may attempt to have it dismissed on presidential immunity grounds.

In a filing with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit, the DOJ asked for permission to file an amicus brief in support of overturning a lower court ruling that the case belonged in state court because it concerned personal conduct, not official acts.

Trump was convicted by a New York jury in May last year of 34 felony counts of falsifying business records to the first degree in relation to alleged payments to adult film actress Stephanie Clifford, also known as Stormy Daniels. Daniels has claimed Trump had an affair with her, which he denies.

A judge on Jan. 10 sentenced him to unconditional discharge, meaning that he receives no jail time or any other form of punishment but that his conviction remains on his legal record.

Trump has pleaded not guilty and is appealing his conviction.

The Supreme Court ruled in July that U.S. presidents enjoy broad immunity from criminal prosecution over official acts.

Lawyers for Trump have been trying to move the business records case to federal court so that they may seek to have it dismissed on the basis that jurors at his trial saw evidence of acts from his first term as president.

Trump has “identified certain categories of the State’s trial evidence, including testimony about his conversations in the Oval Office with the Attorney General and the White House Communications Director, that facially involve official acts,” the DOJ wrote in the filing.

The department, which is not directly involved in the case, said it had an interest in protecting federal officials who face personal legal risk under state law owing to their responsibilities.

It noted that a brief was not initially filed before an October 2024 deadline because President Joe Biden’s DOJ did not get involved in the case.

The new administration is now seeking permission to file the brief past that initial deadline.

“An amicus brief in support of the appellant was originally due on October 21, 2024, before the change in administration,” the filing stated. “The current administration has now had an opportunity to evaluate the case, and the Acting Solicitor General has determined that the United States should participate as amicus in this appeal.”

“Allowing the federal government to file an amicus brief is particularly appropriate here because the United States has significant institutional interests in the proper interpretation of the federal officer removal statute,” it said.

DOJ lawyers added that “the State will remain free, of course, to argue in federal court that any evidentiary use of President Trump’s official acts was somehow acceptable.”

“The point for present purposes is that federal law guarantees the President a federal forum to assert that defense,” they concluded.

In response to the filing, Steven Wu, the appeals chief in the Manhattan district attorney’s office, which brought the charges against Trump, said in a letter to the court that the office takes no position on the motion.

He noted, however, that the government had “many prior opportunities to file a statement of interest or amicus brief” in the case and “identifies no meaningful change in the federal government’s ‘institutional interests’ ... aside from the fact that defendant is now the head of the Executive Branch that is seeking to support his position in this private criminal matter.”

The Epoch Times has contacted Trump’s lawyer Robert Giuffra for comment.

Reuters contributed to this report.