Former President Donald Trump has lost a bid to move his criminal case in New York to federal court.
Judge Alvin Hellerstein issued an opinion on Sept. 3 that said the Supreme Court’s July ruling on presidential immunity did not alter his previous conclusion that payments to adult actress Stephanie Clifford “were private, unofficial acts, outside the bounds of executive authority.”
He also said his court in the Southern District of New York did not have jurisdiction to hear arguments about the propriety of the lower court proceeding, which resulted in a guilty verdict for the former president.
According to Hellerstein, “the proper recourse for parties seeking to remedy alleged errors made during a state trial is to pursue a state appeal or, at the highest level, to seek review from the Supreme Court of the United States.”
“It would be highly improper,” Hellerstein said, “for this Court to evaluate issues of unfairness or error in the state trial. Those are issues for the state appellate courts.”
In his filing, Trump added that “post-trial removal is necessary under these circumstances to afford President Trump an unbiased forum, free from local hostilities.”
“Federal institutional interests associated with the presidency, Congressional and FEC regulation of federal elections, and the integrity of the upcoming 2024 presidential election are at stake,” the filing reads.
Trump had accused Merchan of violating the supremacy clause of the Constitution and Federal Election Campaign Act by asking the jury to “moonlight as FEC [Federal Election Commission] commissioners.”
His filing pointed to Merchan’s declining to allow a former FEC Commissioner to testify and to his rejection of Trump’s requests for special interrogatories that would have required unanimous findings on federal rules surrounding election contributions.
Hellerstein, who previously rejected another of Trump’s requests to relocate the case, cited his July 2023 opinion on the payment to Clifford.
“My holding followed an evidentiary hearing where The People showed conclusively that Mr. Trump reimbursed Michael Cohen for advancing the hush money payments, including two checks signed in the White House by Mr. Trump,” he said.
Trump has denied any wrongdoing and vowed to appeal. In his Aug. 29 filing to the southern district, Trump said the “case should have been dismissed long ago.”
“The Manhattan District Attorney’s Office ... violated the presidential immunity doctrine in grand jury proceedings, and again at trial, by relying on evidence of President Trump’s official acts during his first term in office,” his filing read.
“The U.S. Supreme Court recently ruled that these types of violations threaten the structure of the federal government and the ability of future presidents to carry out their vital duties in the way the Framers intended.”
In August, Trump attorney Todd Blanche told Merchan that sentencing was unnecessary because “dismissal and vacatur of the jury’s verdicts are required based on presidential immunity.”
Blanche said he intended to seek an appeal and requested a delay in sentencing. The district attorney’s office said in a letter that it was deferring to Merchan on scheduling.
