JUST IN: Judge Rejects Trump’s Legal Maneuver to Fight Hush Money Conviction

President Donald Trump speaks at Rockland Community College, Friday, May 22, 2026, in Suffern, N.Y. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)

A federal judge rejected President Donald Trump’s latest legal bid to get his New York criminal hush money case moved to federal court, where it could then be easier to overturn.

U.S. District Judge Alvin Hellerstein, district judge for the southern district of New York, denied the legal effort from Trump’s team, saying in a filing that there is “no statutory basis for removal after verdict, sentencing, and judgment.” The judge said the Trump team’s cited legal grounds for their motion are “neither new nor legally sufficient.”

“The grounds for a second removal cited by Defendant, Donald J. Trump, are neither new nor legally sufficient. He has failed to show good cause and diligence,” the judge wrote.

Trump’s effort to move his case from the state level to federal court is to open up a path to reversal, as his team could argue presidential immunity. This is Hellerstein’s third time denying Trump’s request to remove the case from state courts, but an appellate court ruled last fall that the courts must reconsider following the Supreme Court’s ruling on presidential immunity from July 2024.

Judge Juan Merchan had previously ruled in 2024 that Trump’s hush money conviction should not be reversed based on presidential immunity grounds. Trump called that ruling “illegal” and “psychotic.”

Judge Hellerstein also said Trump’s team delayed their request too long, noting they waited until two months after the Supreme Court ruling to try and get the case dismissed.

The judge also ruled that even the sweeping immunity legally granted by the presidency would not cover this specific case.

Trump was convicted on more than 30 counts of falsifying business records to conceal hush money payments made to adult film actress Stormy Daniels. Trump denied knowledge of the payments and he denied allegations of an extramarital affair with Daniels.

“There is no way that discussions regarding hush money payments to cover up the President’s relations with Stormy Daniels could be an official act,” Hellerstein wrote in the new decision. “An affair, or a cover-up of an affair, is not within the ‘outer perimeter’ of the President’s official responsibilities.”

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