NY appellate judges question Trump’s latest bid to toss hush money conviction

“How would this go towards enriching the lives of American citizens?” Justice Troy Webber asked Trump’s defense team, which claimed Trump’s conduct was protected under presidential immunity.MANHATTAN (CN) — President Donald Trump took another stab at tossing his criminal hush money conviction Thursday, with his lawyer Robert Giuffra arguing to a New York appellate court that the historic case was “infected by multiple fatal errors."Despite being sentenced only to unconditional discharge, Trump has already made several attempts at reversing his 2024 guilty verdict on 34 counts of falsifying business records. Thursday’s bid was at mid-level state appeals court — New York’s Appellate Division, First Department — where a panel of five judges prodded Trump’s defense team on their claims that presidential immunity and federal preemption should justify dismissal more than two years after the trial.Giuffra, Trump’s new counsel from Sullivan & Cromwell, argued Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg unlawfully used the Federal Election Campaign Act of 1971 to turn “a time-barred business records misdemeanor into a felony.” At trial, state prosecutors accused Trump of fudging business records to cover up a salacious tryst with adult film star Stormy Daniels — part of a broader scheme to influence public opinion during his 2016 presidential campaign.But using FECA as a basis for state prosecutions is a slippery slope, Giuffra argued Thursday.“The idea that one of 2,300 local district attorneys could bring a case against a presidential candidate over FECA violations goes too far,” he told the judges.Justice Troy Webber seemed skeptical that FECA was as critical to the case as Giuffra claims. Trump’s conviction related to payments he sent to his then-personal lawyer and “fixer” Michael Cohen, which were repayments for Daniels’ hush money, but unlawfully disguised as standard legal payments.Those payments, Webber recalled, “were not related in any way to the election.”“They were a way for your client to avoid maybe a certain type of publicity,” she said to Giuffra.Executive Assistant District Attorney Steven Wu told the panel the charges against Trump were escalated to felonies because the falsified records were used to commit other crimes — FECA violations among them. But that doesn’t mean the entire case should be tossed on preemption, he said.Wu also rebutted Giuffra’s claims that prosecutors relied on evidence that should have been suppressed by presidential immunity — namely a set of tweets about the hush money payments, which the defense claimed were official presidential communications. Wu said those posts were inconsequential, however, when compared to the “mountain of evidence” prosecutors brought against Trump.“They object to four tweets,” he noted. “This was a drop in the bucket of evidence against the defendant.”Webber questioned the defense on how these tweets could be considered presidential acts in the first place.“How would this go towards enriching the lives of American citizens?” she asked.Giuffra said the tweets relate to Trump proving his “fitness for office,” thus covered by the Supreme Court’s broad immunity interpretation. That argument garnered some sympathy from Justice Martin Shulman, who suggested such “public messaging by a sitting president” could fall under the president’s communication authority.The court didn’t immediately rule following Thursday’s arguments. Justices Bahaati Pitt-Burke, Manuel Mendez and Shlomo Hagler rounded out the panel.The historic case, which concluded just months before Trump was elected to his second nonconsecutive presidential term, made him the first ever commander-in-chief to be found guilty of a crime. Trump has since been persistent in his efforts to toss the case using a variety of legal angles, including that the trial judge was biased against him and that Bragg brought the case solely for political reasons.“This is the most politically charged prosecution in our nation’s history,” Trump claims in his appellate brief.Thus far, his efforts have been entirely unsuccessful.His more recent bids have involved completely new legal teams. Giuffra, for instance, was tapped after Trump appointed his trial lawyers to high-ranking officials in his Department of Justice. Todd Blanche is now the U.S. Attorney General, while Emil Bove sits on the Third Circuit bench.Subscribe to our free newslettersOur weekly newsletter Closing Arguments offers the latest about ongoing trials, major litigation and rulings in courthouses around the U.S. and the world, while the monthly Under the Lights dishes the legal dirt from Hollywood, sports, Big Tech and the arts.Additional Reads