Trump camp denies he lost bid to have Manhattan criminal case moved to federal court
The campaign for former President Donald Trump has denied that his request to have his criminal case in Manhattan removed to federal court was rejected by U.S. District Judge Alvin Hellerstein.
Legal experts on the social media site X said Hellerstein denied Trump's request to move his trial before his September sentencing.
"Judge Alvin Hellerstein has rejected Trump's attempt to remove the Manhattan DA's criminal case to federal court. While Trump can refile, he'll have to attach either written consent from the DA or leave from the Court, neither of which he has," reported legal expert Lisa Rubin. "Some have suggested that based on the wording, the judge himself had nothing to do with tonight’s docket entry and that it might have been a clerical error. Stay tuned."
According to former federal prosecutor Harry Litman, this is a worst-case scenario for the former president's bid to delay the case further.
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"To elaborate as a few have requested, if Hellerstein had held no removal on the merits b/c no official action by Trump, Trump cd have appealed and hoped to have it still in the fed system on Sept 18, the date of sentencing," he wrote. "But now it's back in [Manhattan Judge Juan] Merchan's court and likely to stay."
Trump was convicted on 34 charges of felony falsification of business records in this case earlier this year.
Prosecutors, led by District Attorney Alvin Bragg, said Trump covered up hush payments to adult film star Stormy Daniels as part of a scheme to conceal information from the public that could have decided the 2016 presidential election.
Trump campaign spokesman Steven Cheung told Rubin in a statement: "Contrary to the wishes of Radical Liberals, President Trump’s powerful petition to remove the Manhattan DA’s Witch Hunt to federal court has not been ruled on by a judge.”
He added: “In a standard procedural move, today, the clerk’s office asked President Trump’s legal team to file in a specific format and we are working with them to make sure it is properly filed on the electronic system.”