Trump appeals New York hush money conviction

By Kara Scannell, CNN

(CNN) — President Donald Trump appealed his criminal conviction on state charges related to a hush money scheme, arguing the case should never have been brought and the verdict should be overturned.

Lawyers for Trump repeated many of the arguments that had been rejected throughout the investigation and trial, accusing Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg, a Democrat, of bringing a politically charged case, and alleging the judge erred by not recusing himself from the trial and allowing evidence Trump believes should have been excluded based on the concept of presidential immunity.

“Targeting alleged conduct that has never been found to violate any New York law, the DA concocted a purported felony by stacking time-barred misdemeanors under a convoluted legal theory, which the DA then improperly obscured until the charge conference. This case should never have seen the inside of a courtroom, let alone resulted in a conviction,” Trump’s attorneys wrote in a 96-page filing.

In May 2024, Trump was convicted on 34 counts of falsifying business records to cover up payments made to reimburse his personal attorney Michael Cohen who, days before the 2016 presidential election, advanced $130,000 to Stormy Daniels to keep her quiet about an alleged past sexual tryst with Trump. Trump has denied the affair.

Trump was able to shed federal indictments looming over him, but the state case and conviction is the only one that made it to trial and resulted in Trump being a convicted felon turned president.

In addition to the appeal at the state court level, the president is simultaneously trying to move the state case into federal court where he believes he’ll have a better chance at overturning the verdict. An earlier attempt to move the case into federal court was denied by a district judge and Trump’s legal team is appealing that decision.

“The Supreme Court’s historic decision on Immunity, the Federal and New York State Constitutions, and other established legal precedent mandate that this meritless hoax be immediately overturned and dismissed,” a spokesperson for Trump told CNN in a statement. “President Trump will keep defeating Democrat weaponization at every turn as he focuses on his singular mission to Make America Great Again.”

In his legal argument before New York’s Supreme Court’s Appellate Division, First Department, Trump’s lawyers repeated many of his past arguments, including that federal election law should pre-empt state election law.

The prosecution’s theory was that Trump falsified the business records to influence the 2016 election. Several witnesses, including David Pecker, Trump’s long-time friend who at the time ran the company that published the National Enquirer, testified about “catch and kill” deals. Trump argued that since federal prosecutors did not bring federal election charges against him, the state should not have been able to bring a case.

Trump’s lawyers also argued that Judge Juan Merchan, who presided over the trial, made several errors. They argued Merchan should not have allowed the jury to hear any evidence that involved official presidential acts, including testimony from Trump aide Hope Hicks, and that Merchan, who gave $35 in donations to Democrats, should have recused himself based on his own donations and his daughter’s job at a political consulting company that worked on the Biden campaign.

“Federal law expressly preempts (the New York district attorney’s) misdemeanor-turned-felony charges because those charges rest on an alleged violation of federal campaign regulations that States cannot (and have never) enforced. The trial was fatally marred by the introduction of official Presidential acts that the Supreme Court has made clear cannot be used as evidence against a President. The jury was instructed incorrectly, allowing a conviction without the unanimity required by both New York law and basic due process. Beyond these fatal flaws, the evidence was clearly insufficient to convict,” Trump’s lawyers wrote.

Merchan previously rejected all of these arguments in denying a bid to overturn the conviction.

Trump, who after the verdict went on to win the presidential election, was sentenced days before his inauguration to an unconditional discharge — no jail time and no restrictions.

This story has been updated with additional information.

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