(Bloomberg) -- Donald Trump asked a US judge in New York to take over his “flawed” state hush-money criminal case, saying a federal court is the proper forum to assess the merits of the criminal conviction won by Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg.
The former president filed a request Thursday with US District Judge Alvin Hellerstein in Manhattan, who previously rejected Trump’s bid to transfer the case to his court last year. This time, Trump cited the July 1 landmark US Supreme Court ruling that he has at least some immunity from criminal prosecution for official actions he took while president.
Trump was convicted in May by a Manhattan state jury of 34 felony counts of falsifying business to conceal a $130,000 payment to a porn star before the 2016 election. Trump last month argued to the New York State justice Juan Merchan that his conviction should be thrown out on immunity grounds.
Merchan has scheduled sentencing for Sept. 18 and said he’d rule by Sept. 16 on Trump’s immunity argument.
Although the move has slim chances of success, Trump’s lawyers argued there is good cause for the federal judge to block Merchan from sentencing the former president. If the case is transferred and Trump wins back the presidency, he could order the Justice Department to drop the prosecution — a power he doesn’t have over state cases.
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In last year’s ruling rejecting a transfer to federal court, Hellerstein said “evidence overwhelmingly suggests that the matter was a purely a personal item of the President — a cover-up of an embarrassing event.”
A spokeswoman for Bragg declined to comment.
--With assistance from Erik Larson.
(Updates with argument in Trump’s filing in fifth paragraph.)
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