A federal judge denied Donald Trump’s bid to move his hush money case in New York to a federal court on Tuesday, just two weeks before the former president is set to be sentenced after being convicted for falsifying business records to help his 2016 campaign.
Despite the Supreme Court’s July decision that upheld limited presidential immunity for official acts taken while in office, District Judge Alvin Hellerstein of the Southern District of New York shot down Trump’s second attempt to move the criminal court case to federal court, arguing that “nothing in the Supreme Court’s opinion affects my previous conclusion that the hush money payments were private, unofficial acts, outside the bounds of executive authority.”
Trump was convicted on all 34 felony counts in May for falsifying business records. Judge Juan Merchan scheduled the sentencing for the former president on September 18—a date that Trump’s lawyers argue is too close to the presidential election.