Donald Trump is accused of falsifying business records in connection to hush money payments to Stormy Daniels. Judge Alvin Hellerstein said he would not accept the case and would return it to state court. Trump has pleaded not guilty to 34 counts. The judge said the payments to Daniels, an adult film actress and director, were not related to presidential duties. “The evidence overwhelmingly suggests that the matter was a purely a personal item of the President – a cover-up of an embarrassing event,” the judge wrote in his ruling. “Whatever the standard, and whether it is high or low, Trump fails to satisfy it,” Hellerstein added in the ruling.. A Trump campaign spokesman said Wednesday that “this case belongs in a federal court and we will continue to pursue all legal avenues to move it there” A spokesperson for Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg told that the district attorney’s office is “very pleased with the federal court’s decision and look forward to proceeding in New York State Supreme Court” The judge also rejected Trump’s claim that the case should be moved to federal court because of hostility at the state level. “There is no reason to believe that the New York judicial system would not be fair and give Trump equal justice under the law,” he wrote in the judge’s ruling. The case is set to go to trial in Manhattan for this case in March 2024, and Trump has signaled that he will make the argument that the federal statute should preempt the state claim before the judge presiding over the case in state court, the judge said. “FECA does not preempt the application of a general state law to conduct related to a federal election except if the law, or its application, constitutes a specific regulation of conduct covered by FECA,” he said in his decision. “Trump can be convicted of a felony even if he did not commit any crime beyond the falsification, so long as he intended to do so or to conceal such a crime,” he added in a separate ruling in the case against the president. ” Trump is not immune from the People’s prosecution in New New York Supreme Court,” the Judge said in another blow to Trump, adding that federal election law, the Federal Election Campaign Act, doesn’t pre-empt the state charges, falsifying a business record with the intent to commit or conceal another crime. “This case does not relate to a presidential duty,” theJudge said, adding, “Trump cannot be considered the performance of a constitutional duty” in the state of New York, he said. The decision was made by a federal judge in Manhattan on Wednesday morning, and the case is expected to be heard in federal court later this year or early next year, the prosecutor’s office said in a statement. The charges against Trump are related to payments made to adult film star Stormy Clifford, whose real name is Stephanie Clifford. The payments were made to Cohen, his then-personal attorney who facilitated the hushMoney payment to Daniels. The payment was made in violation of federal law.
Judge denies Trump bid to move hush money case to federal court. Judge denies Trump’s bid to take case from New York to New Jersey.
