Judge denies Trump's 2nd attempt to move his hush money case into federal court
A federal judge has denied former President Donald Trump's second attempt to move his New York hush money case from state court into federal court.
Trump had asked the federal court to intervene and delay his sentencing after the Supreme Court ruled in July that Trump is entitled to immunity from criminal prosecution for official acts undertaken while in office.
"Nothing in the Supreme Court's opinion affects my previous conclusion that the hush money payments were private, unofficial acts, outside the bounds of executive authority," U.S. District Judge Alvin Hellerstein wrote in his order Tuesday denying Trump's request.
Trump's sentencing is scheduled to take place on Sept. 18.
The former president, late Tuesday evening, filed a notice of appeal signaling his plans to appeal Hellerstein's decision to the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit.
Trump was found guilty in May on 34 felony counts of falsifying business records related to a hush money payment to adult film actress Stormy Daniels in order to boost his electoral prospects in the 2016 presidential election. He has said he will appeal the verdict.
Earlier Tuesday, the Manhattan district attorney's office, in a letter to the New York judge overseeing the case, argued that there is no reason to delay the Sept. 18 sentencing.
"We note that the concerns defendant expresses about timing are a function of his own strategic and dilatory litigation tactics: This second notice of removal comes nearly ten months after defendant voluntarily abandoned his appeal from his first, unsuccessful effort to remove this case; three months after he was found guilty by a jury on thirty-four felony counts; and nearly two months after defendant asked this Court to consider his CPL § 330.30 motion for a new trial," Tuesday's letter to Judge Juan Merchan said.
The district attorney's office declined to take a position on when Trump's sentencing should occur, leaving it to the discretion of the judge.
The former president has asked Judge Merchan to postpone the sentencing until after the November election and also to throw out the case based on presidential immunity.
Merchan has not yet issued rulings on either of those requests.
