Lawyers for Donald Trump asked a federal appeals court to give them a second chance to argue that the former president’s New York state hush money case should be moved into federal court.
“On September 3, the district court issued a conclusory summary remand order that misapplied binding precedent and statutory removal procedure, ignored key evidence supporting the Second Removal Notice, and misapprehended the obligation of federal courts to provide an unbiased federal forum for fair litigation of federal defenses pursuant to the federal-officer removal statute,” Trump’s latest court filing says.
They’re appealing the ruling last month from US District Court Judge Alvin Hellerstein, who rejected Trump’s request to make a new argument to move the case following the Supreme Court’s ruling this summer on presidential immunity. Hellerstein ruled Trump didn’t show “good cause” for why he should reconsider his 2023 ruling, writing, “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.”
Trump’s lawyers say Hellerstein improperly determined the Supreme Court’s presidential immunity decision has no effect on the former president’s hush money case.
“The district court ignored the significance and key features of Trump v. United States and proceeded to a merits analysis of the Presidential immunity defense, which was wholly improper in the context of threshold removal proceedings and ended with the entirely incorrect assertion that ‘[n]othing’ in the Supreme Court’s post-trial decision impacted the district court’s prior remand ruling.”
They’re asking the appeals court to order Hellerstein to hear their arguments for why the case should be moved to federal court.
Trump’s lawyers had appealed Hellerstein’s decision and asked the court to put his sentencing on hold. Last month, a federal appeals court panel denied Trump’s motion after the judge overseeing the state case agreed to move the GOP nominee’s sentencing until after Election Day. Monday’s filing is the formal legal argument from Trump’s attorneys.
The Manhattan district attorney’s office’s brief is due in a couple of weeks. Trump will then file a reply.
The former president is set to be sentenced in late November after a Manhattan jury found him guilty of all 34 counts of falsifying business records in his hush money criminal trial earlier this year. Trump could face no jail or as much as four years on each count, which is capped by law at 20 years. If this motion for removal is still outstanding by November 26, Judge Juan Merchan, who is overseeing the state case, won’t be able to enter final judgment – or sentence Trump – in that case.
The former president has also accused Merchan of bias and is attempting to remove the case on those grounds. Merchan previously rejected several of Trump’s efforts seeking his recusal.
Trump’s lawyers claim in the new filing that the case must be moved to federal court to deal with the gag order imposed by Merchan that they say still restricts the GOP nominee’s campaign speech ahead of the election.
“There was also good cause for the Second Removal Notice based on the need to protect the integrity of the 2024 Presidential election by providing President Trump with a federal forum to seek prompt relief from an unconstitutional gag order that improperly restricts his campaign speech,” the filing says.
Trump is awaiting a ruling from Merchan on his motion to toss the conviction on the basis that evidence, such as testimony from White House officials and tweets he posted while in office, should be excluded in light of the Supreme Court ruling. Merchan said he will rule on that motion on November 12.
