A federal judge on Tuesday rejected Donald Trump’s request to intervene in his New York criminal bribery case, thwarting the former president’s latest attempt to overturn his felony conviction and delay his sentencing.
Federal Judge Alvin Hellerstein denied Trump’s lawyers permission to file papers asking the Manhattan federal court to take over the case. He said they had failed to meet the burden of proof required for a federal court to take over the case from the state court where Trump was convicted in May.
The decision leaves Trump’s case in state court, where he is scheduled to be sentenced on September 18.
Trump’s lawyers had sought to take the case to federal court so they could then seek to have the verdict overturned and the case dismissed following the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision granting former presidents immunity from prosecution for official acts.
Hellerstein, who last year rejected Trump’s request to take the case to federal court, said nothing in the Supreme Court’s July 1 decision affected his “prior conclusion that the hush money payments” at issue in the Trump case “were private, unofficial acts outside the bounds of executive authority.”
Hellerstein sidestepped a defense argument that Trump had been the victim of “bias, conflicts of interest and appearances of impropriety” by the judge presiding over the state court trial, Juan M. Merchan.
“This Court has no jurisdiction to hear Mr. Trump’s arguments regarding the due process in New York,” Hellerstein wrote in a four-page decision.
Instead, Hellerstein noted, Trump can pursue an appeal to the state or, after exhausting that avenue, seek review from the U.S. Supreme Court.
“It would be wholly inappropriate for this Court to assess issues of bias, unfairness, or error in the state trial,” Hellerstein wrote. “Those issues are within the purview of the state courts of appeals.”
Hellerstein’s decision comes hours after Trump’s lawyers filed papers seeking his permission to seek intervention in federal court. Trump’s lawyers had initially asked the federal court to intervene last week, but their filings were rejected because they had not first obtained Hellerstein’s permission to file them, as required.
Messages seeking comment were left with Trump’s lawyers and the Manhattan district attorney’s office, which is prosecuting the case.
Earlier Tuesday, Manhattan prosecutors raised objections to Trump’s efforts to delay post-trial decisions in the case as he seeks to have the federal court intervene.
The Manhattan district attorney’s office argued in a letter to the judge presiding over the state court case that it had no legal obligation to suspend post-trial decisions and wait for Hellerstein to rule.
Prosecutors urged the trial judge, Juan M. Merchan, not to delay ruling on two key defense requests: Trump’s call to delay sentencing until after the November election, and his attempt to overturn the verdict and dismiss the case following the U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling on presidential immunity.
Merchan said he would rule on Trump’s motion to overturn the verdict on Sept. 16. His decision on whether to postpone sentencing is expected in the coming days.
In May, Trump was convicted on 34 counts of falsifying business records to conceal a $130,000 payment to porn star Stormy Daniels, whose affair allegations threatened to disrupt his 2016 presidential campaign. Trump has denied the allegations and said he did nothing wrong.
Falsifying business documents is punishable by up to four years in prison. Other penalties include probation or a fine.
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