Former President Donald Trump has lost his bid to transfer his New York State court case related to a hush money payment to porn star Stormy Daniels to federal court, according to a ruling by a federal judge. The decision by Judge Alvin Hellerstein keeps Trump on track to go to trial on March 25, 2024, in Manhattan Supreme Court the case. Trump was indicted in March on 34 felony counts of falsifying business records.
Hellerstein rejected Trump’s arguments that the case belonged in federal court because he was charged for conduct committed when he was U.S. president and that the charged conduct related to acts performed “under color of office.” Hellerstein wrote in an order that Trump had failed to show that the conduct charged by the indictment was related to any act performed by or for the president under the color of the official acts of a president. The judge added that the evidence overwhelmingly suggested that the matter was purely a personal item of the former president, a cover-up of an embarrassing event.
The records at the center of the hush money case mischaracterized the reason for payments Trump and his company, the Trump Organization, made to his then-personal attorney Michael Cohen during Trump’s tenure in the White House. Trump had characterized the money as being for legal services when it was to reimburse Cohen for a $130,000 payment he made to Daniels shortly before the 2016 presidential election. Cohen paid Daniels to keep her quiet about her claim of having had sex with Trump a decade earlier, months after Melania Trump had given birth to their son Barron Trump. The former president denies having sex with Daniels.
A spokesperson for Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg, who is prosecuting Trump, said, “We are very pleased with the federal court’s court’s decision and look forward to proceeding in New York State Supreme Court.” Trump has pleaded not guilty in the case.
The former president also has pleaded not guilty in a Florida federal criminal case in which he was charged with dozens of counts related to retaining classified records after leaving office. Trump, who is seeking the 2024 Republican nomination, is the first president, former or otherwise, to be charged in a criminal case. The embattled 45th president could also soon face conspiracy charges for his actions on and before January 6, 2021, that allegedly contributed to the riot at the U.S. Capitol. Trump said his lawyers received a letter Sunday from special counsel Jack Smith notifying them that he is a target of a grand jury probe into the storming of the Capitol.