Judge, rejecting Trump arguments, signals he’ll let New York criminal case stay in state court
The hush money case against former President Donald Trump appears headed back to a New York court after a federal judge showed little inclination Tuesday to let Trump move the history-making prosecution to federal court.
Changing courts could give Trump a new avenue to try to get the case thrown out. Hoping to get to federal court, Trump’s lawyers argue that he was acting in his capacity as president when he hired and paid a personal attorney who orchestrated payouts to squelch allegations of extramarital sex — payouts that are at the heart of Manhattan prosecutors’ case against Trump.
After a three-hour hearing that featured surprise testimony from a Trump company insider, Judge Alvin K. Hellerstein told a packed courtroom that he was not ready to make a “firm ruling” but saw “no relationship to any official act of the president” in the alleged conduct that made Trump the first former president ever charged with a crime.