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A New York appeals court is set to hear arguments from President Donald Trump’s lawyers as they seek to overturn his 2024 conviction on 34 felony counts related to hush money payments. The hearing comes two and a half years after a Manhattan jury found the president guilty of falsifying business records to conceal a $130,000 payment made to adult film actor Stormy Daniels before the 2016 election.
President Trump’s legal team from Sullivan & Cromwell contends that the case is “the most politically charged prosecution in our Nation’s history” and have asked the court to reverse the conviction. The president maintains his innocence and has denied any wrongdoing.
Efforts to move the case from New York state court to federal court have been repeatedly rejected. U.S. District Judge Alvin Hellerstein most recently denied a motion to transfer the case, stating there was no legal basis to do so after conviction and sentencing. Judge Hellerstein further ruled that discussions about hush money payments “could not be an official act” and therefore were not protected by presidential immunity.
The president’s legal team has argued that the Supreme Court’s ruling on broad presidential immunity should protect him from prosecution, but Judge Hellerstein wrote that “paying hush money to an adult film star or engaging in a cover-up of an embarrassment are not subsumed in presidential immunity."
President Trump was sentenced to an unconditional discharge, which means he did not receive community service or fines, but remains a convicted felon in New York City. The president is continuing to pursue appeals in the state court system, and future rulings will determine whether his conviction stands.