A federal judge on Wednesday rejected former President Donald Trump’s attempt to move his clandestine payments case from New York state court to federal court.
US District Court Judge Alvin Hellerstein’s ruling means the case will remain in Manhattan criminal court, where District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s office is prosecuting Trump on 34 felony counts of falsifying business records. .
Trump, who has pleaded not guilty, argued that the payments were related to his duties as president and therefore the case should be heard in federal court. Hellerstein rejected that argument.
“Trump has not been able to show that the conduct charged in the Impeachment is by or related to any act done by or for the President under the guise of the official acts of a President. Trump has also failed to show that he has a plausible federal defense for the impeachment,» the judge wrote in a 25-page document. decision.
The district attorney’s office and Trump’s lawyers did not immediately respond to NBC News’ request for comment.
Hellerstein had indicated he was skeptical of Trump’s argument at a hearing last month.
“It is very clear that the act for which the president has been indicted is unrelated to anything under the color of his office,” Hellerstein told Trump lawyers and the Manhattan district attorney’s office at the time.
The conduct Trump is accused of covering up includes a $130,000 payment his then-attorney Michael Cohen made to adult film star Stormy Daniels near the end of the 2016 presidential campaign to keep quiet about an alleged affair with Trump.
Trump has acknowledged paying Cohen in a series of payments in 2017 when he was president, but maintains that the payments were escalated and that he never had an affair with Daniels.
Trump’s lawyers argued that the case should be heard in federal court, where the former president could claim additional defenses, in part because they say he would not have retained Cohen as his personal lawyer if he had not been elected president. Therefore, they argued, his actions related to Cohen were «connected or associated» with his official duties.
Hellerstein disagreed with his decision.
«The evidence overwhelmingly suggests that the matter was a purely personal matter for the president, a cover-up of an embarrassing event. The money paid to an adult film star is not related to the official acts of the president,» the judge ruled.
“Falsifying business records to conceal such a refund and transforming the refund into a business expense for Trump and revenue for Cohen is also not related to a presidential duty,” he added.
Hellerstein also played down Trump’s argument that the Democratic district attorney unfairly accused him.
«Trump argues that a ‘politically motivated’ district attorney who ‘disfavored [Trump’s] acts and policies as president’ caused the grand jury to indict. However, Trump does not show that the grand jury lacked a rational basis for the prosecution,» he wrote, adding that «there is no reason to believe that the New York judicial system would not be fair and would not give Trump the same justice. Before the Law. .»
The case will now return to state criminal court in Manhattan, where it is being overseen by Judge Juan Merchan. He is scheduled to go to trial in March,