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Trump requests to move “hush money” case to federal court
Former President Donald Trump asked a federal court late Thursday to intervene in his New York “hush money” criminal case, seeking a pathway to overturn his felony conviction and indefinitely delay his sentencing next month.
Lawyers for the current Republican nominee asked the federal court in Manhattan to seize the case from the state court where it was tried, arguing that the historic prosecution violated his constitutional rights and ran afoul of the U.S. Supreme Court’s recent presidential immunity ruling.
Trump’s lawyers, who failed last year in a pretrial bid to get the case shifted to federal court, said moving it now will give him an “unbiased forum, free from local hostilities” to address those issues. In state court, they said, Trump has been the victim of “bias, conflicts of interest, and appearances of impropriety.”
If the case is moved to federal court, Trump’s lawyers said they will then seek to have the verdict overturned and the case dismissed on immunity grounds.
If the case remains in state court and Trump’s sentencing proceeds as scheduled on Sept. 18 — about seven weeks before Election Day — it would be election interference, his lawyers said, raising the specter that Trump could be sent to jail just as early voting is getting under way.
Trump’s request Thursday is poised to be decided by the same Manhattan federal judge who rejected his earlier bid to move the case — a decision that cleared the way for his trial in state court.
“The ongoing proceedings will continue to cause direct and irreparable harm to President Trump — the leading candidate in the 2024 Presidential election — and voters located far beyond Manhattan,” Trump lawyers Todd Blanche and Emil Bove wrote in a 64-page U.S. District Court filing.
The Manhattan District Attorney’s Office, which prosecuted Trump’s case and fought his previous effort to move the case out of state court, declined to comment. A message seeking comment was left with a spokesperson for New York’s state court system.
Trump was convicted in May of 34 felony counts of falsifying business records related to conceal a $130,000 hush money payment to porn actor Stormy Daniels, whose affair allegations threatened to disrupt his 2016 presidential run.
Trump’s former lawyer Michael Cohen paid Daniels and was later reimbursed by Trump, whose company logged the reimbursements as legal expenses. Trump maintains that the stories were false, that reimbursements were for legal work and logged correctly, and that the case against him was part of a politically motivated “witch hunt” aimed at damaging his current presidential campaign.
Falsifying business records is punishable by up to four years behind bars. Other potential sentences include probation or a fine.
Even if Trump’s case isn’t moved to federal court, ensuing legal wrangling could force his sentencing to be delayed, giving him a critical reprieve as he navigates the aftermath of his criminal conviction and the homestretch of his White House run. Trump is the first ex-president convicted of a crime.
Separately, the trial judge, Juan M. Merchan, is weighing Trump’s requests to postpone sentencing until after Election Day, Nov. 5, and to overturn the verdict and dismiss the case in the wake of the Supreme Court’s immunity decision.
The high court’s July 1 ruling reins in prosecutions of ex-presidents for official acts and restricts prosecutors in pointing to official acts as evidence that a president’s unofficial actions were illegal.
Trump’s lawyers have argued that prosecutors rushed to trial instead of waiting for the Supreme Court’s presidential immunity decision, and that the trial was “tainted” by evidence that should not have been allowed under the ruling, such as former White House staffers describing how he reacted to news coverage of the hush money deal and tweets he sent while president in 2018.
Trump’s lawyers had previously invoked presidential immunity in a failed bid last year to get the hush money case moved from state court to federal court.
U.S. District Judge Alvin K. Hellerstein rejected Trump’s claim that allegations in the hush money indictment involved official duties, writing in July 2023, “The evidence overwhelmingly suggests that the matter was a purely a personal item of the president — a cover-up of an embarrassing event.”
“Hush money paid to an adult film star is not related to a president’s official acts. It does not reflect in any way the color of the president’s official duties,” Hellerstein added.
Trump appealed the ruling, but abandoned that fight just before a November 2023 deadline to file paperwork stating why he felt Hellerstein should be overturned.
Trump’s lawyers argued in Thursday’s filing that circumstances had changed since they initially attempted to get the case moved to federal court. Among other things, they said state prosecutors had misled the court by saying earlier that the trial wouldn’t involve Trump’s official duties or actions as president.
There was also testimony, they said, from Cohen about Trump’s potential use of pardon power and his response to various investigations into his conduct. All that testimony, they wrote, had to do with Trump’s actions as president.
“President Trump is entitled to a federal forum for his Presidential immunity defense based on the Supreme Court’s decision in Trump v. United States,” Blanche and Bove wrote. “After this case is properly removed, President Trump will establish that the charges must be dismissed.”
Blanche and Bove also reiterated their claims that Merchan has treated Trump unfairly because Merchan’s daughter is a Democratic political consultant, and they argued that the judge is wrongly muzzling Trump with a gag order he kept in place after the verdict.
Merchan this month rejected Trump’s latest request that he step aside from the case, saying Trump’s demand was a rehash “rife with inaccuracies and unsubstantiated claims” about his ability to remain impartial. A state appeals court recently upheld the gag order.
Merchan “is poised to incarcerate President Trump in the final weeks of the campaign, and he has maintained an unwarranted and unconstitutional prior restraint on President Trump’s ability to respond to political attacks by criticizing the New York County proceedings,” Blanche and Bove said.
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Craig Newmark, the founder of online classified-ads site Craigslist, thinks the U.S. has a cybersecurity problem.
The entrepreneur turned philanthropist has pledged to donate $100 million to help safeguard the country from potential future cyberattacks, the Wall Street Journal first reported. Newmark will allocate $50 million to protect infrastructure, like power grids, from cyberattacks, including from foreign nations. The other half of his donation will be put toward educating the general public about how to safeguard their personal information, according to the report.
Newmark, 71, retired from the company he founded in 2018.
“The country is under attack,” Newmark told the Wall Street Journal. He said that cybersecurity experts who are working to protect the country from attack “need people to champion them.”
Today, many households make use of connected appliances or smart devices that can make them vulnerable to being hacked by criminals. At the corporate level, cyberattacks have become increasingly common.
“In the current cyberwar, the fight is on our own shores, and we all need to play an active role for the protection of our country and ourselves,” Newmark writes on his website.
In June, a hacking group took down CDK Global’s software platform, crippling auto dealerships across the U.S. CDK said that hackers demanded a ransom in order to restore its systems. In February, hackers infiltrated payments manager Change Healthcare, paralyzing segments of the U.S. Health care system. They are but two examples of the tremendous repercussions a cyberattack can have on an industry.
As part of his latest commitment, Newmark, who has pledged to give away nearly all of his wealth to charity, is making donations to a project out of the University of Chicago’s public policy school that trains cybersecurity volunteers to strengthen local infrastructure. Child internet-safety group Common Sense Media, is another beneficiary, according to the WSJ report.
The large majority of the $100 million pledge has not yet been allocated, and organizations can apply for donations through Newmark’s philanthropic organization, Craig Newmark Philanthropies.
On the foundation’s website, Newmark says he likes to donate to organizations that he believes in and lets them spend the money as they see fit. “Okay, what I do is find people who are really good at their jobs, and who can tolerate my sense of humor. I provide them with resources, and then get outta their way,” he states.
In addition to cybersecurity, other causes Newmark champions include support for military families and veterans, safeguarding trustworthy journalism and pigeon rescue.
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Borrowers saddled with higher interest rates on everything from mortgages to credit cards received some welcome news on Wednesday when the Federal Reserve announced a half a percentage point cut to the federal funds rate. That brings the range down to 4.75% to 5.00%, a major reduction from the elevated position the range was frozen at for more than a year.
While it will take some time for that reduction to reverberate, it will inevitably make borrowing cheaper in the weeks and months to come. And with other cuts possible for when the Fed meets again in November and December, borrowing could become even more affordable by the end of the year.
That doesn’t mean, however, that borrowers stuck with high-interest-rate debt should wait for relief. There’s a strong argument to be made that these borrowers should take action now instead. Below, we’ll break down why.
Learn how the right debt relief service can help you here now.
Why borrowers shouldn’t wait for rate cuts to fix their debt
While waiting for rate cuts to echo throughout the economy may be tempting, particularly if you’re suffering from high-rate debt, that could be a mistake. Here’s why:
Rates may not fall dramatically
Credit card interest rates have surged in recent years, averaging over 20% right now. But those rates won’t fall as rapidly as they’ve grown. That’s because credit card rates are determined by a series of complex factors, only one of which is the federal funds rate. And even if credit card rates came down by the same half a percentage point that the federal funds rate did, that’s likely to make very little difference in what you have to pay each month, especially if you’re making minimum payments. So if you’re waiting for the Fed to help reduce what you have to pay on your credit card you could be waiting a very long time.
Start exploring your credit card debt relief options here instead.
Your debt will accrue in the interim
Even if you could rely on multiple rate cuts to come, your existing debt will continue to accrue interest and, possibly, penalties and fees if you’re already struggling to pay what you’ve borrowed. And if you can’t make adequate payments right now, it’ll become even more difficult to do so when dealing with a higher debt total (with compounded interest).
Take a multi-pronged approach
There are multiple debt relief options available right now. From debt consolidation loans to debt management programs to credit card debt forgiveness and even bankruptcy in extreme circumstances, there’s likely a path forward for you now. But that doesn’t mean that you still can’t try to position yourself to take advantage of lower rates. Since rate cuts have broad effects, you may be able to consolidate your debt with a debt consolidation loan now, for example, and then refinance it when rates drop later this year or in 2025. Just don’t sit idle, as debt, no matter the form, can quickly become debilitating if not properly addressed.
Speak with a debt relief servicer now who can help.
The bottom line
It’s never a good idea to let your debt accumulate, even if you’re confident that rate cuts on the horizon could help. Rate cuts, instead, will offer gradual relief, not the significant help you may need. Plus, your debt, fees and penalties will compound in the interim. Instead, consider taking a multi-pronged approach by researching a series of debt relief options that can help you now. And keep rate cuts in mind for the future when you may be able to capitalize by refinancing instead.