Former President Trump on Thursday asked a federal court to intervene in his hush money case as he seeks to overturn his conviction and further push back his sentencing slated for next month, The Hill reports. In a filing late Thursday, Trump’s attorneys requested the U.S. District Court in Manhattan take over the criminal hush money case, arguing the state’s prosecution went against his constitutional rights and contradicted the Supreme Court’s ruling on presidential immunity. A federal judge already rejected Trump’s first attempt at moving the hush money case to federal court last summer, ruling the case did not have to do with his official duties as president, but rather a “personal item.” Should the case move to federal court, Trump’s attorneys signaled they would move to have the verdict overturned and the case dismissed.
The former president was convicted earlier this year on 34 felony counts of falsifying business records in New York, becoming the first former U.S. president to become a convicted felon. The charges stemmed from reimbursements made to Trump’s onetime fixer and attorney Michael Cohen, for a hush money payment to porn actress Stormy Daniels. Trump was initially expected to be sentenced in July for this case, but the judge pushed back the sentencing to Sept. 18 at the earliest. The Manhattan District Attorney’s Office, which prosecuted the case, declined to comment on the filing. In July, the U.S. Supreme Court issued a ruling for his presidential immunity argument in another case, granting broad immunity protections to presidents, while also restricting prosecutors from citing any official acts as evidence in trying to prove a president’s unofficial actions violated the law. The high court held that former presidents are absolutely immune from prosecution for actions that fall within their core constitutional duties, such as interacting with the Justice Department, and at least presumptively immune for all other official acts. It remains unclear how the immunity decision could impact another attempt to move the case.
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