Trump Lawyers Blast Federal Judge’s Ruling One Day After His Death

President Donald Trump’s personal lawyers sharply criticized a New York federal judge for what they called “erroneous” and “wrong” rulings—just one day after the judge’s death.

District Judge Alvin Hellerstein died Wednesday of natural causes at age 92. During his tenure in the Southern District of New York, he handled several high-profile matters, including the prosecution of ousted Venezuelan leader Nicolas Maduro and Trump’s effort to move his “hush money” case from state court to federal court.

Hellerstein’s decisions rejecting Trump’s requests came under renewed attack from the president’s defense team Thursday.

“Throughout this litigation, both [the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office] and the district court have grasped for different, meritless reasons to wrongly deny President Trump—the chief federal officer—a federal forum to adjudicate his substantial federal defenses,” Robert J. Giuffra Jr. wrote in a 43-page filing.

Giuffra contended that Hellerstein and the Manhattan district attorney’s office had offered “ever-shifting justifications” for keeping the case in state court. Those explanations, he argued, “cannot obscure what has always been clear: the President of the United States may invoke the federal forum that Congress expressly authorized for precisely these extraordinary circumstances. The district court erred in concluding otherwise.”

In March 2023, Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s office charged Trump with 34 felony counts of falsifying business records tied to payments made to adult-film actress Stormy Daniels. Trump sought to transfer the prosecution to federal court, but Hellerstein rejected the request.

The case proceeded to trial the following year, and a jury found Trump guilty on every count.

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Before sentencing, Trump renewed his effort to move the case to federal court. His lawyers pointed to a U.S. Supreme Court ruling holding that presidents enjoy absolute immunity for core constitutional duties and some immunity for conduct at the outer edges of their official responsibilities. Hellerstein rejected the renewed request as well, ruling that the payments involving Daniels were not official presidential conduct.

Trump won reelection in November and returned to the Oval Office for a second four-year term in January 2025, but the legal battle continued. He appealed Hellerstein’s second ruling to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit. The appeals court sent the matter back with further guidance, and 10 months later Hellerstein again refused to transfer the case, this time concluding that Trump had waited too long.

Trump’s attorneys challenged that additional justification. Referring to the second ruling, Giuffra wrote, “In erroneously denying removal in September 2024, the district court said nothing about President Trump’s supposed delay or any purported waiver of removal.”

The latest ruling also drew criticism over the length of time it took to issue. “The district court took another ten months to rule, despite President Trump’s repeated letter requests to do so ‘promptly,’” Thursday’s filing stated. Giuffra returned to the issue elsewhere, writing that the “district court got it wrong again, this time after taking ten months to issue its decision.”

Trump was ultimately given an unconditional discharge. The convictions remain on his record, but he received no prison sentence, fine, probation or comparable penalty.

Last week, District Attorney Bragg urged the Second Circuit not to move Trump’s case into federal court.

The post Trump attorneys accuse federal judge of offering ‘meritless reasons to wrongly deny’ the president’s request—one day after the judge’s death first appeared on Law & Crime.

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