Trump Again Loses on Hush Money Conviction

President Trump has lost another attempt at erasing his New York hush money conviction. A federal judge on Friday refused to wipe out his felony case, rejecting Trump's bid to shift it to federal court and invoke presidential immunity. US District Judge Alvin Hellerstein said that Trump's latest arguments were "neither new nor legally sufficient," and that efforts to revisit the verdict ran afoul of removal deadlines, Axios reports. Seeking to relitigate the issue amounted to "a second bite at the apple," he wrote. Hellerstein also flatly dismissed the idea that the conduct at issue qualified for any protections of the office.

"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," he wrote. Trump was convicted in May 2024 on 34 counts of falsifying business records tied to a $130,000 payment to Daniels ahead of the 2016 election, becoming the first former US president found guilty of felonies. Hellerstein had been directed by a federal appeals court to look at the issue again in light of the US Supreme Court's presidential immunity ruling, per ABC News. "I reaffirm my former decision," the judge said.