Judge Rejects Trump’s Bid to Move Hush Money Case to Federal Court – Rolling Stone

It’s been a rough day for Donald Trump’s legal team. On Wednesday, Judge Alvin K. Hellerstein slapped down a bid by the former president to have charges related to his 2016 hush money payment to adult actress Stormy Daniels moved from state to federal court. 

In his decision, Hellerstein wrote that “Trump has failed to show that the conduct charged by the Indictment is for or relating to any act performed by or for the President under color of the official acts of a President. Trump also has failed to show that he has a colorable federal defense to the Indictment.” 

In March, Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg charged Trump with 34 separate felony counts of falsifying business records related to reimbursement payments made to his former attorney Michael Cohen, who carried out the hush-money scheme shortly before the 2016 election. 

During a June hearing, Hellerstein hinted that he wasn’t buying Trump’s argument that the case belonged in federal court given that the payments to Cohen took place after he had been sworn in as president. 

“Cohen was hired as a private matter to take care of a private matter,” Hellerstein said at the time. “The fact that it was a president who made that private hiring does not change the facts or the legal principle to be derived from the facts,” he added.

Hellerstein’s ruling was not the only disappointing court ruling received by Trump’s legal team on Wednesday. Earlier in the day, U.S. District Judge Lewis Kaplan rejected a request from the former president to retry a civil court case brought against the former president by author E. Jean Carroll. 

In May, a Manhattan jury found Trump liable for defamation, sexual assault, and battery against Carroll. Trump was ordered to pay the author $5 million in damages. Trump took issue with the amount granted to Carroll, claiming that because he was found liable for sexual assault, but not explicit rape, the penalties should be reduced. 

“The definition of rape in the New York Penal Law is far narrower than the meaning of ‘rape’ in common modern parlance,” Kaplan wrote in his decision. “The finding that Ms. Carroll failed to prove that she was ‘raped’ within the meaning of the New York Penal Law does not mean that she failed to prove that Mr. Trump ‘raped’ her as many people commonly understand the word ‘rape.’ Indeed, as the evidence at trial recounted below makes clear, the jury found that Mr. Trump in fact did exactly that.” 

“I have considered Mr. Trump’s other arguments and found them all unpersuasive,” Kaplan added. “The jury in this case did not reach ‘a seriously erroneous result.’ Its verdict is not ‘a miscarriage of justice.’ Mr. Trump’s motion for a new trial on damages or a remittitur is denied.” 

The double blow on Wednesday is a marker of extensive legal debacles being fielded by the former president. Earlier this week, Trump announced that he had received a target letter from the Justice Department informing him that he is the subject of a criminal investigation into efforts to overturn the 2020 election. The letter is the clearest sign yet that Special Counsel Jack Smith is preparing to level a second criminal indictment against Trump. 

At least the former president is willing to acknowledge the amount of strain he’s placing on his lawyers. As he wrote on Truth Social Wednesday morning, “Any attorney that represents me is either a fool, or a Great American Patriot.”  

It’s been a rough day for Donald Trump’s legal team. On Wednesday, Judge Alvin K. Hellerstein slapped down a bid by the former president to have charges related to his 2016 hush money payment to adult actress Stormy Daniels moved from state to federal court. 

In his decision, Hellerstein wrote that “Trump has failed to show that the conduct charged by the Indictment is for or relating to any act performed by or for the President under color of the official acts of a President. Trump also has failed to show that he has a colorable federal defense to the Indictment.” 

In March, Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg charged Trump with 34 separate felony counts of falsifying business records related to reimbursement payments made to his former attorney Michael Cohen, who carried out the hush-money scheme shortly before the 2016 election. 

During a June hearing, Hellerstein hinted that he wasn’t buying Trump’s argument that the case belonged in federal court given that the payments to Cohen took place after he had been sworn in as president. 

“Cohen was hired as a private matter to take care of a private matter,” Hellerstein said at the time. “The fact that it was a president who made that private hiring does not change the facts or the legal principle to be derived from the facts,” he added.

Hellerstein’s ruling was not the only disappointing court ruling received by Trump’s legal team on Wednesday. Earlier in the day, U.S. District Judge Lewis Kaplan rejected a request from the former president to retry a civil court case brought against the former president by author E. Jean Carroll. 

In May, a Manhattan jury found Trump liable for defamation, sexual assault, and battery against Carroll. Trump was ordered to pay the author $5 million in damages. Trump took issue with the amount granted to Carroll, claiming that because he was found liable for sexual assault, but not explicit rape, the penalties should be reduced. 

“The definition of rape in the New York Penal Law is far narrower than the meaning of ‘rape’ in common modern parlance,” Kaplan wrote in his decision. “The finding that Ms. Carroll failed to prove that she was ‘raped’ within the meaning of the New York Penal Law does not mean that she failed to prove that Mr. Trump ‘raped’ her as many people commonly understand the word ‘rape.’ Indeed, as the evidence at trial recounted below makes clear, the jury found that Mr. Trump in fact did exactly that.” 

“I have considered Mr. Trump’s other arguments and found them all unpersuasive,” Kaplan added. “The jury in this case did not reach ‘a seriously erroneous result.’ Its verdict is not ‘a miscarriage of justice.’ Mr. Trump’s motion for a new trial on damages or a remittitur is denied.” 

The double blow on Wednesday is a marker of extensive legal debacles being fielded by the former president. Earlier this week, Trump announced that he had received a target letter from the Justice Department informing him that he is the subject of a criminal investigation into efforts to overturn the 2020 election. The letter is the clearest sign yet that Special Counsel Jack Smith is preparing to level a second criminal indictment against Trump. 

At least the former president is willing to acknowledge the amount of strain he’s placing on his lawyers. As he wrote on Truth Social Wednesday morning, “Any attorney that represents me is either a fool, or a Great American Patriot.”