{"id":449621,"date":"2026-02-05T01:59:16","date_gmt":"2026-02-05T01:59:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/449621\/"},"modified":"2026-02-05T01:59:16","modified_gmt":"2026-02-05T01:59:16","slug":"judge-to-trump-lawyers-trying-to-move-hush-money-appeal-to-federal-court-you-sought-two-bites-at-the-apple","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/449621\/","title":{"rendered":"Judge to Trump lawyers trying to move hush money appeal to federal court: \u2018You sought two bites at the apple\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n A federal judge was skeptical of President Donald Trump\u2019<\/a>s argument to try to move the appeal of his hush money conviction to federal court \u2014 after lawyers already took their shot in two other courts.\n <\/p>\n

\n Judge Alvin Hellerstein suggested Trump\u2019s attorneys missed their chance by first taking the US Supreme Court\u2019s decision on presidential immunity to the state court judge who oversaw the criminal trial and not to a federal judge until almost two months later.\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cYou made a choice. You sought two bites at the apple,\u201d Hellerstein told Trump\u2019s lawyers Wednesday.\n <\/p>\n

\n He also quizzed Trump\u2019s lawyer over the argument that the case should move to federal court because Trump could claim as a defense that he has immunity. Calling the arguments \u201cprovocative,\u201d he said he would issue a ruling later.\n <\/p>\n

\n Trump\u2019s attorneys are trying to get the appeal of his hush money conviction moved into federal court where the judges could interpret challenges involving federal preemption and presidential immunity. Removal would also plow a quicker path to have the appeal heard by the US Supreme Court.\n <\/p>\n

\n Trump was convicted in 2024 of 34 state charges of falsifying business records in connection with hush money payments to adult film star Stormy Daniels.\n <\/p>\n

\n During oral arguments on Wednesday, Hellerstein said Trump\u2019s attorneys appeared to make a strategic decision to bring the Supreme Court decision on presidential immunity first to Judge Juan Merchan, the state judge who oversaw the trial, before trying to move the case to federal court which it did 58 days after the decision came down.\n <\/p>\n

\n Jeffrey Wall, an attorney for Trump, pushed back against Hellerstein\u2019s comment that he was trying to get another bite at the apple.\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cIt would have been disrespectful in spades\u201d to Judge Merchan if they bypassed him, Wall said. He said they had to move quickly before the state judge because Trump was set to be sentenced by him 10 days later.\n <\/p>\n

\n Hellerstein said Trump\u2019s attorneys missed the 30-day window allowed under the statute to move the case into federal court and their burden now was whether there was \u201cgood cause\u201d to allow them to try again.\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cAll your doing is saying your good cause is you\u2019re afraid to anger the state court and you want to give the state court the first chance\u201d to rule on the Supreme Court decision before trying the argument in federal court, the judge said.\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cYou\u2019ve made a strategic decision. You\u2019re seeing where you can get a better decision and that is indicative of the intent,\u201d the judge said.\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cMy thesis is that was fatal to you,\u201d Hellerstein said.\n <\/p>\n

\n Trump is simultaneously appealing his conviction on 34 counts of falsifying business records to influence the 2016 presidential election in state court. That appeal can ultimately be brought to the US Supreme Court but it has additional layers of review.\n <\/p>\n

\n Hellerstein had previously rejected Trump\u2019s effort to move the case into federal court, finding the argument that Trump had presidential immunity didn\u2019t apply. Trump later tried again after the Supreme Court\u2019s ruling on presidential immunity. He argued the use of evidence, including testimony from Trump\u2019s former White House advisor Hope Hicks and his tweets while in office, were improperly used and his conviction should be overturned.\n <\/p>\n

\n At the time Hellerstein denied that motion for removal, writing, \u201cPrivate schemes with private actors, unconnected to any statutory or constitutional authority or function of the executive, are considered unofficial acts.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n Trump appealed and in November the Second Circuit Court of Appeals sent it back to Hellerstein to conduct further analysis considering the Supreme Court ruling on presidential immunity.\n <\/p>\n

\n On Wednesday, Wall, the attorney for Trump, argued when the Manhattan district attorney\u2019s office introduced evidence of what they argued were official acts \u2014 such as Trump\u2019s tweets, trial testimony from his former White House aide Hope Hicks, and testimony about conversations Trump had with his attorney general \u2014 it changed the case and now it should be moved into federal court.\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cThe district attorney held those keys in his hand. He didn\u2019t have to introduce that evidence at trial to prove up his case. Once he did this became a prosecution relating to those official acts,\u201d Wall argued.\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cIs that enough to make it a federal case? I think the answer to that is obviously yes,\u201d Wall said.\n <\/p>\n

\n The attorney added, \u201cI don\u2019t think you have to get to the bottom of this. It\u2019s all for the Second Circuit.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n Wall said that the judge doesn\u2019t have to decide the merits of the argument on immunity, only that they have what is called a \u201ccolorable defense\u201d to move the case into federal court.\n <\/p>\n

\n Steven Wu, an attorney for the district attorney\u2019s office, argued that a fight over evidence is not a defense to criminal charges.\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cThe defendant seems to assume that because evidence of official acts is introduced that somehow transforms the nature of the criminal action. That\u2019s just not true. The charges arise out of conduct that is wholly unofficial and private,\u201d Wu said.\n <\/p>\n

\n During Wednesday\u2019s argument, while the judge was skeptical of many of Trump\u2019s legal arguments, he acknowledged a technical maneuver that appealed to him.\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cThat\u2019s a delicious thought because I then dump the whole problem on the Court of Appeals,\u201d Hellerstein said.\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A federal judge was skeptical of President Donald Trump\u2019s argument to try to move the appeal of his…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":449622,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[23,3,21,19,22,20,25,24],"class_list":{"0":"post-449621","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-united-states","8":"tag-america","9":"tag-news","10":"tag-united-states","11":"tag-united-states-of-america","12":"tag-unitedstates","13":"tag-unitedstatesofamerica","14":"tag-us","15":"tag-usa"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/449621","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=449621"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/449621\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/449622"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=449621"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=449621"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=449621"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}