Trump gets new review of immunity from New York criminal hush money case

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By Jonathan Stempel and Luc Cohen

NEW YORK (Reuters) -U.S. President Donald Trump was given another chance to erase his New York state hush money criminal conviction, as a federal appeals court on Thursday ordered a judge to reconsider whether the case belonged in federal court.

A three-judge panel of the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said U.S. District Judge Alvin Hellerstein in Manhattan should review more closely how the Supreme Court’s landmark decision in July 2024 giving Trump broad immunity from prosecution affected the New York case.

Trump is trying to overturn his May 2024 conviction for concealing a $130,000 hush money payment to porn star Stormy Daniels, whose claim to have had a sexual encounter with him could have upended his 2016 presidential campaign.

Jurors convicted Trump, a Republican, on 34 felony counts of falsifying business records, in a case brought by Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg.

Trump has denied Daniels’ claim, and defeated Democrat Hillary Clinton in the election. He is also asking a New York state appeals court to void his conviction.

Bragg’s office did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

A spokesman for Trump’s legal team said the Supreme Court decision and other legal precedents require that Bragg’s “witch hunt” be “immediately overturned and dismissed.”

TRUMP PRESSES IMMUNITY CLAIM

The Supreme Court decision, Trump v United States, held that presidents are immune from prosecution over official acts, and prosecutors cannot use evidence of official acts even in criminal cases involving private behavior.

Trump said that should doom his hush money conviction because jurors heard evidence from his first White House term, including testimony from former White House communications director Hope Hicks.

Hellerstein rejected Trump’s bid to move the case in September 2024, agreeing with Bragg that the case involved private behavior and Trump waited too long to seek the move.

The judge denied a similar request by Trump following Trump’s March 2023 indictment.

APPEALS COURT SAYS IMPORTANT ISSUES MUST BE ADDRESSED

But in Thursday’s unsigned decision, the appeals court panel said Hellerstein did not adequately consider whether Trump v. United States represented a “change in controlling law” to justify Trump’s late push into federal court.

“Explaining only that ‘nothing in the Supreme Court’s opinion affects [the] previous conclusion that the hush money payments were private, unofficial acts, outside the bounds of executive authority,’ the court bypassed what we consider to be important issues bearing on the ultimate issue of good cause,” the panel said.

The appeals court said Hellerstein should review whether the disputed evidence “relates to acts taken under color of the Presidency,” and then whether Trump “diligently” sought to move the case.

Bragg argued that Trump should not have waited close to two months after the Supreme Court decision. Trump said the delay, covering a period that included an assassination attempt, was reasonable because of the campaign and other litigation.

CONVICTION STANDS DESPITE NO JAIL

The trial judge in the hush money case, Juan Merchan, sentenced Trump on January 10 to an unconditional discharge, with no jail time or fine.

Merchan said that punishment, which leaves the conviction on the books, would avoid a disruption to Trump’s second White House term, which began on January 20.

Trump faced four criminal cases, and Bragg’s was the only one that went to trial. He denied wrongdoing and pleaded not guilty in all four cases.

The three judges on the appeals court were appointed to the bench by Democratic presidents. Bragg is also a Democrat.

(Reporting by Luc Cohen and Jonathan Stempel in New York;Editing by Noeleen Walder and Matthew Lewis)