U.S. President Donald Trump speaks after signing an executive order to rename Lake Ontario Lakes of the Americas in the Oval Office of the White House on August 27, 2026 in Washington, DC.
Jim Watson | AFP | Getty Images
A federal judge on Friday rejected President Donald Trump’s effort to transfer a New York state criminal hush money case that ended in a conviction to federal court.
Judge Alvin Hellerstein’s ruling marks the third time the judge has rejected President Trump’s request to have a criminal case heard in U.S. District Court in Manhattan.
A federal appeals court ordered Hellerstein to reconsider his recent disavowal of President Trump’s efforts in light of a July 1, 2024 Supreme Court ruling in a federal criminal case in which Trump was a defendant that granted at least a presumptive immunity from prosecution for all of Trump’s official actions, but clarified that “there is no immunity for unofficial actions.”
Hellerstein said Friday that Trump waited too long to ask for the case to be transferred to federal court after his May 2024 conviction and subsequent U.S. Supreme Court ruling.
Late Friday, Trump’s lawyers filed a notice of appeal against Hellerstein’s ruling, which will be heard by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit.
Trump was found guilty in Manhattan State Supreme Court on 34 felony counts of falsifying business records related to hush money payments to silence claims he had sex with porn star Stormy Daniels before the 2016 election.
Trump, who denied Daniels’ claims, was unconditionally removed from office in January 2025, just before he was sworn into his second non-consecutive term in the White House.
President Trump had asked for his dismissal as part of a strategy to overturn his conviction because the evidence allowed at trial included conversations and observations with his aides, but his lawyers argued that these should have been excluded because they were related to his official duties.
“Discussion of hush money payments to cover up the president’s relationship with Stormy Daniels should not be an official act,” Hellerstein wrote.
The ruling is the latest in a series of legal setbacks against President Trump personally since 2025.
In July, another Manhattan federal judge ordered author E. Jean Carroll to release about $5.8 million to satisfy a civil lawsuit that held Trump liable for sexual abuse and defamation. In April, a federal appeals court declined to review a decision upholding a separate $83.3 million civil judgment in Carroll’s favor for defamation against Trump.
In April, a federal judge dismissed Trump’s $10 billion defamation lawsuit against the Wall Street Journal and Rupert Murdoch and granted an amended civil complaint.
Hellerstein also said in Friday’s ruling that there is no legal basis for Trump to have the case removed from state court after he is convicted and sentenced.
“He cannot challenge one court to another, and he cannot seek victory in one court. He cannot then try to move the case to another court if it becomes clear that the court is going to rule against him,” Hellerstein wrote in his ruling.
Hellerstein also wrote that the evidence presented at trial did not violate presidential immunity and did not prove that Trump was prosecuted by the Manhattan District Attorney’s office for conduct related to his time as president.
“Paying hush money to adult film stars and engaging in cover-ups.”
Embarrassment is not part of presidential prerogatives,” Hellerstein said.
Trump is appealing the conviction separately in the New York State Court of Appeals.
“The Supreme Court’s historic decisions on the immunity clause, the federal Constitution, the New York State Constitution, and other established legal precedents require that the Manhattan DA’s witch hunt be transferred to federal court and immediately reversed and dismissed,” a spokesperson for Trump’s legal team said in a statement about Hellerstein’s ruling.
“President Trump has already prevailed in this case in the Second Circuit Court of Appeals,” the spokesperson said, noting that the court ordered Hellerstein to reconsider the transfer request.
“And today’s baseless and lawless decision contradicts that correct judgment,” the spokesperson said. “President Trump will make a strong appeal and continue to defeat Democratic weaponization at every turn.”
