President Donald Trump appears in Manhattan Criminal Court for his hush money trial on May 30 in New York City. Trump is trying to get his hush money conviction thrown out. (Steven Hirsch-Pool/Getty Images)
Trump's legal team cited a Supreme Court ruling on presidential immunity.
"President Trump continues to win in his fight against Radical Democrat Lawfare," a spokesperson for Trump's legal team said in a statement. "The Supreme Court’s historic decision on Immunity, the Federal and New York State Constitutions, and other established legal precedent mandate that the Witch Hunt perpetrated by the Manhattan DA be immediately overturned and dismissed."
U.S. District Judge Alvin Hellerstein, an appointee of President Bill Clinton, had twice denied Trump's requests to move the case, once after his March 2023 indictment and another after Trump's May 2024 conviction.
The high court subsequently ruled that presidents and former presidents cannot be prosecuted for official acts. Trump pleaded not guilty to all 34 counts of falsifying business records in the first degree but was found guilty after an unprecedented six-week criminal trial in New York.
Fox News Digital has reached out to Trump's lawyers.
President Donald Trump and Todd Blanche, his attorney, after the verdict was read at Manhattan criminal court in New York on May 30, 2024. A New York jury found Trump guilty of multiple felonies at his hush-money trial. (Justin Lane/EPA/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
Steven Wu, the appellate chief for the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office, which prosecuted Trump, countered that the president was too late in seeking to move the case to federal court. Normally, such a request must be made within 30 days of an arraignment.
Exceptions can be made if "good cause" is shown, which Hallerstein said wasn't the case.
In a 111-page appeal filed in New York Supreme Court’s Appellate Division in October, Trump's lawyers also argued that Judge Juan Merchan, who presided over the case in which Trump was convicted, refused to recuse himself from the case. They questioned his impartiality due to his past political contributions — donating to both then-President Joe Biden and to a group called "Stop Republicans PAC."
Trump seen during a virtual court hearing in New York. (Fox News )
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The lawyers also called into question Merchan’s daughter’s work as the president and part-owner of an advertising company that was paid millions by the Kamala Harris campaign and other Democrats.
Fox News Digital's Brooke Singman and The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Louis Casiano is a reporter for Fox News Digital. Story tips can be sent to louis.casiano@fox.com.
https://www.foxnews.com/politics/appeals-court-hands-trump-legal-win-orders-review-hush-money-case-over-presidential-immunity