❓WHAT HAPPENED: A U.S. appeals court revived President Donald J. Trump’s bid to dismiss his business records criminal conviction, allowing him to move his case out of a New York state court.
👤WHO WAS INVOLVED: President Donald J. Trump, a panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit, Judge Juan Merchan, and U.S. District Judge Alvin Hellerstein.
📍WHEN & WHERE: The ruling was made on Thursday by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit, addressing a New York state court conviction.
💬KEY QUOTE: “We leave it to the able and experienced District Judge to decide whether to solicit further briefing from the parties or hold a hearing to help it resolve these issues,” the appeals court judges wrote.
🎯IMPACT: The decision allows Trump to pursue dismissal of his criminal conviction in a federal court.
A U.S. appeals court on Thursday revived President Donald J. Trump’s attempt to dismiss his business records conviction, ruling that he can seek to move the case from New York state court to federal court. The Second Circuit Court of Appeals overturned a previous ruling by a lower court judge, saying that the judge had “bypassed what we consider to be important issues bearing on the ultimate issue of good cause.”
The three-judge panel did not take a position on the merits of Trump’s argument for dismissal but said the lower court must reconsider the request. “We leave it to the able and experienced District Judge to decide whether to solicit further briefing from the parties or hold a hearing to help it resolve these issues,” the ruling stated. The appeals court also directed the judge to reevaluate Trump’s motion to file a second removal notice, considering the new opinion.
Earlier this year, Trump’s legal team sought to move the case to federal court, arguing that the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision on presidential immunity might require the Manhattan jury’s conviction to be dismissed. In May 2024, that jury found Trump guilty on 34 counts of falsifying business records in connection with reimbursements to his disgraced former lawyer, Michael Cohen, who had paid adult film actress Stormy Daniels $130,000 during the 2016 campaign. Prosecutors said the payments were improperly recorded as legal expenses to conceal their true purpose.
Trump pleaded not guilty and maintained that the case was politically motivated. Following his election victory in 2024, he received an unconditional discharge, meaning no additional penalties were imposed, but the conviction remains on his record. His lawyers have filed a separate appeal with the New York Supreme Court’s Appellate Division, arguing the charges relied on a “convoluted legal theory” and should never have resulted in a conviction.
Trump has repeatedly called the Manhattan prosecution a “witch hunt” designed to interfere with his 2024 presidential campaign. Other criminal cases against him, in Washington, Florida, and Georgia, have since been dismissed or dropped.
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