More than two years after President Trump was convicted of 34 felonies tied to a 2016 “hush money” payment to an adult film star, his lawyers argued Thursday before a New York appeals panel to overturn the conviction.
Trump’s attorneys in the case have changed — one former defense attorney, Todd Blanche, is now US attorney general, and another, Emil Bove III, is a federal judge — but his new team of personal lawyers has continued to echo the arguments he made throughout the trial in 2024.
An October 16 filing by Trump’s attorney Robert Giuffra began with a line Trump himself frequently posted on social media: The case “should have never been brought.”
The Arguments
Lawyers for Trump and Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg each got 15 minutes to respond to questions from New York’s mid-level appeals panel, the Appellate Division, First Department. Each side has indicated the case is destined for the state’s highest court and potentially the US Supreme Court.
Giuffra argued that the payment should have been subject to federal election laws that preempt state prosecutions. He also claimed prosecutors violated presidential immunity and failed to show Trump had an “intent to defraud.”
“The question here is whether the White House statements and strategy introduced at trial in this criminal case — responding to public allegations of personal wrongdoing bearing directly on the President’s integrity and fitness for office — were official,” Giuffra wrote.
Bragg’s Response
Lawyers for Bragg have characterized the 2016 “hush money” plan as “a conspiracy to defraud the American public and government regulators.”
“The criminal charges here arose from his unofficial, non-presidential conduct — as multiple courts have already found,” they wrote in a July brief.
The Conviction
A unanimous jury convicted Trump in May 2024 for his part in a scheme to falsify business records related to reimbursements made to Michael Cohen, his attorney at the time. Cohen had paid $130,000 to adult film star Stormy Daniels days before the 2016 election in exchange for her silence about an alleged sexual encounter with Trump years earlier. Trump has denied the allegations.
The arguments come a week after the death of Judge Alvin Hellerstein, who was presiding over a parallel effort by Trump to move the case from state to federal court. Hellerstein had repeatedly rejected Trump’s arguments.
“Reimbursing Cohen for advancing hush money to Stormy Daniels cannot be considered the performance of a constitutional duty,” Hellerstein wrote. “Falsifying business records to hide such reimbursement… likewise does not relate to a presidential duty.”
The Bottom Line
President Trump’s lawyers are arguing to overturn his 34 felony convictions in the New York hush money case. They claim federal election law preempts the state prosecution and that prosecutors violated presidential immunity. The Manhattan district attorney says the conduct was unofficial and non-presidential. The case is expected to go to the state’s highest court and potentially the US Supreme Court.
