Donald Trump’s lawyers and New York prosecutors will face off before a federal judge Tuesday over the former president’s claim that his criminal case against him should be heard in federal, not state, court.
Trump’s lawyers argue in court documents that the case should be adjourned because their client was president during the period of time the Manhattan district attorney’s office alleges he signed falsified business records.
Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s office «made the decision to wrongfully prosecute President Trump for lawful conduct that occurred while the President was in office,» argued Trump’s attorneys, Todd Blanche and Susan Necheles, in a filing before Tuesday’s court appearance before US District Judge Alvin. Hellerstein.
The lawyers argue that the change of jurisdiction to federal court, which would potentially open up additional defenses for Trump, is necessary in part because the case is «politically motivated.»
The prosecutor’s office says Trump was charged in state court because he violated state law.
Trump pleaded not guilty in state criminal court in April to 34 felony counts of falsifying business records related to his alleged role in hush money payments toward the end of his 2016 presidential campaign.
In court documents, prosecutors said Trump «repeatedly and fraudulently falsified New York business records to conceal criminal conduct that concealed harmful information from the voting public during the 2016 presidential election.»
The conduct Trump allegedly covered up included a $130,000 payment his then-attorney Michael Cohen made to adult film star Stormy Daniels in the final days of the campaign to keep her quiet about an alleged affair with Trump. The former president has denied any affair with Daniels.
Cohen has said he made the payment on Trump’s instructions, and Trump has acknowledged paying Cohen through payments that were labeled legal expenses.
In their federal court filings, Trump’s lawyers argued that their client had only hired Cohen to «manage his personal affairs» because he had been elected president, so his actions involving Cohen were «connected or associated» with his actions. official duties.
Prosecutors called that argument a «concession» that Trump’s actions in the case were personal, not presidential.
«Nothing of this conduct touches on, relates to, has a nexus or causal connection between, is associated with, or has any other connection to, any official responsibility or authority of the President,» his filing said.
They added that «no presidential duty or responsibility required the defendant to have Cohen make the $130,000 payment to an adult film actress in October 2016, to agree to repay Cohen for that payment before his inauguration in January 2017, and then to make regular payments in 2017″. to satisfy her pre-existing and pre-presidential debt.»
Hellerstein, 89, is presiding over the hearing after both sides agreed they had no problem with him despite the fact that he did legal work for a Trump entity, Trump Equitable Fifth Avenue, in the 1990s while in private practice. .
He was appointed to the position in 1998 by Bill Clinton.
The matter was originally assigned to Judge Ronnie Abrams, but she recused herself because her husband, Greg Andres, investigated links between the 2016 Trump campaign and Russia.
The district attorney’s indictment against Trump was the first against a former president. Since then, Trump has been indicted in a separate case in Florida on 37 federal felony counts related to his alleged mishandling of classified documents, including willful withholding of national defense information, making false statements and representations, and conspiracy to obstruct the justice.
He pleaded not guilty in that case earlier this month.