Trump seeks federal court review for 3rd time in effort to erase hush-money conviction

By Esra Tekin

ISTANBUL (AA) - A federal judge on Wednesday sharply questioned an attorney for US President Donald Trump and appeared unconvinced by arguments seeking to overturn Trump’s 2024 hush-money conviction.

US District Judge Alvin Hellerstein said Trump’s legal team at the time—Todd Blanche and Emil Bove—made a significant strategic error in July 2024 following a US Supreme Court ruling that Trump was entitled to immunity.

Rather than taking the case directly to federal court, Trump’s lawyers asked the state trial judge to intervene, a decision Hellerstein said ultimately damaged Trump’s chances.

He made these remarks during a hearing that lasted more than three hours at the US District Court in lower Manhattan.

"You made your choice and sought two bites of the apple; you should have gone to federal court first,” Hellerstein said, as Trump tries for a third time to move the case to federal court in an effort to overturn his 34 guilty verdicts.

Jeffrey Wall, a former senior Justice Department lawyer who now represents Trump, argued that Trump had the right to have the case heard in federal court.

Wall said that going directly to federal court at the time would have been premature and would have denied state trial Judge Juan Merchan the opportunity to review the issue first.

Judge Hellerstein rejected that claim, saying Wall was repeating an argument that had already been resolved.

He said there was nothing preventing Trump’s lawyers from going directly to federal court in the first place.

Steven Wu, who represents Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg, agreed, arguing that Trump’s legal team had the option to go to federal court first but instead made a deliberate choice to start in state court.

“You cannot go to state court and when you are unhappy with that result go to federal court,” Wu said.