Former President Donald Trump, the front-runner for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination, has requested a federal appeals court to reverse a federal judge’s recent decision in his pending New York state criminal case.
U.S. District Judge Alvin K. Hellerstein last week rejected President Trump’s request to have his case transferred to federal court, where his lawyers could arguePresident Trump was immune from prosecution.
It marked the first time a former president has been charged with a crime. A trial in the case has been scheduled to start in late March 2024.
U.S. law allows criminal prosecutions to be moved from state to federal court if they involve actions taken by federal government officials as part of their official duties, but Judge Hellerstein ruled that the case involved a personal matter and not presidential duties.
In seeking to try the case tried in federal court,President Trump’s lawyers have argued that some of his alleged conduct amounted to official presidential duties because it occurred in 2017 while he was president, including checks he purportedly wrote while sitting in the Oval Office.
The case, which dealt President Trump nearly three dozen counts in June, involves allegations that the former president illegally retained classified documents at his Mar-a-Lago estate after he left office.
34 Felony Counts
The criminal case against President Trump in New York state court concerns alleged non-disclosure agreements (NDAs) signed before the 2016 presidential election by adult entertainment performer Stormy Daniels, whose real name is Stephanie Clifford; former Playboy model Karen McDougal; and Dino Sajudin, a former doorman at the Trump Tower.Ms. Clifford was paid $130,000 to sign an NDA over an alleged one-night affair she had with President Trump in 2006. The NDA was facilitated by Mr. Cohen.
Meanwhile, the various payments made from The Trump Organization to Mr. Cohen had been recorded as being for legal services. President Trump’s lawyers have argued these payments to Mr. Cohen were legitimate legal expenses and were not part of any cover-up.
Mr. Cohen initially told media outlets in February 2018 that he paid the funds out of his own pocket, but he later reversed this account in his guilty plea, claiming to have done so at President Trump’s direction and that The Trump Organization reimbursed him through routine legal expenses.
President Trump has denied any wrongdoing in the matter, and previously called the payment part of a monthly retainer given to Mr. Cohen and said the lawyer “entered into, through reimbursement, a private contract between two parties.”
