NEW YORK (AP) \u2014 President Donald Trump\u2019s lawyers have asked a New York state appeals court to toss out his hush money criminal conviction, saying federal law preempts state law and there was no intent to commit a crime.<\/p>\n
The lawyers filed their written arguments with the state\u2019s mid-level appeals court just before midnight Monday.<\/p>\n
In June, the lawyers asked a federal appeals court to move the case to federal court, where the Republican president can challenge the conviction on presidential immunity grounds. The appeals court has not yet ruled.<\/p>\n
Trump was\u00a0convicted in May 2024 of 34 felony counts<\/a>\u00a0of falsifying business records to conceal a hush money payment to adult film actor\u00a0Stormy Daniels<\/a>, whose affair allegations threatened to upend his\u00a02016 presidential campaign<\/a>. Trump denies her claim and said he did nothing wrong. It was the only one of the four criminal cases against him to go to trial.<\/p>\n Trump was sentenced in January to what\u2019s known as an unconditional discharge, leaving his conviction on the books but sparing him jail, probation, a fine or other punishment.<\/p>\n Appearing by video at his sentencing, Trump called the case a \u201cpolitical witch hunt,\u201d \u201ca weaponization of government\u201d and \u201can embarrassment to New York.\u201d<\/p>\n The Manhattan district attorney\u2019s office, which prosecuted the case, will have a chance to respond to the appeals arguments in court papers. A message seeking comment was left with the office on Tuesday.<\/p>\n At trial, prosecutors said Trump mislabeled payments to his then-lawyer Michael Cohen as legal fees to conceal that he was actually reimbursing the $130,000 that Cohen paid Daniels to keep her quiet in the final weeks of Trump\u2019s successful 2016 presidential run.<\/p>\n At the time, Daniels was considering going public with a claim that she and the married Trump had a 2006 sexual encounter that Trump has consistently denied.<\/p>\n In their arguments to the New York state appeals court, Trump\u2019s lawyers wrote that the prosecution of Trump was \u201cthe most politically charged prosecution in our Nation\u2019s history.\u201d<\/p>\n They said Trump was the victim of a Democrat district attorney in Manhattan who \u201cconcocted a purported felony by stacking time-barred misdemeanors under a convoluted legal theory\u201d during a contentious presidential election in which Trump was the leading Republican candidate.<\/p>\n They wrote that federal law preempts the \u201cmisdemeanor-turned-felony charges\u201d because the charges rely on an alleged violation of federal campaign regulations that states cannot and have never enforced.<\/p>\n They said the trial was also spoiled when prosecutors introduced official presidential acts that the Supreme Court has made clear cannot be used as evidence against a U.S. president.<\/p>\n