U.S. President Donald Trump speaks during the announcement of new fuel economy standards, in the Oval Office at the White House in Washington, D.C., U.S., December 3, 2025. REUTERS Brian Snyder
The New York Sun reports President Donald Trump is working hard to reverse the “hush money conviction” that made him a convicted felon.
Trump’s lawyers argued on Thursday that the case prosecuted against him by Manhattan’s district attorney, Alvin Bragg “belongs in federal court,” which is potentially stacked with judicial allies who will favor Trump in decisions.
Trump formally appealed his New York hush money conviction last year, but the Sun was the first to report on the legal update, which now sits on the docket at the Southern District of New York.
Last year, Trump’s attorneys argued that his trial, in which a jury of his New York peers found him guilty of 34 felony counts, was "fatally marred" by faulty evidence and overseen by presiding New York judge Juan Merchan, who should have recused himself. Trump originally asked the Appellate Division's First Department to reverse what his lawyers call the "most politically charged prosecution in our Nation's history."
This more recent filing advocating for a federal venue was sent to Judge Alvin Hellerstein, who is also presiding over the prosecution of President Nicolás Maduro of Venezuela, the Sun reports. Hellerstein, a Clinton appointee, has previously opined that the prosecution stemming from payments to entertainer Stormy Daniels belongs in state court, where it was tried.
“In 2024 Judge Hellerstein rejected Mr. Trump’s request for removal, ruling that ‘Nothing’ affected his ‘conclusion that the hush money payments were private, unofficial acts, outside the bounds of executive authority,’” the Sun reported. “Judge Merchan reached the same conclusion when Mr. Trump tried to dismiss the case on the basis of the Supreme Court’s ruling in Trump v. United States that unofficial presidential acts are presumptively immune.”
Trump argues that removal of the case to a federal court “is plainly available" to him, even though Trump has already been sentenced at a state trial. Merchan’s sentence order generously imposed only an “unconditional discharge” demanding no further punishment on Trump — even after a jury determined that he did orchestrate and try to obscure hush money payments to Daniels.
Despite that, Trump claims he is defending the Presidency rather than himself, arguing that “this case presents federal questions of enormous importance not just for President Trump himself, but for the institution of the Presidency.”
Read the New York Sun report at this link.
