President Donald Trump’s own tweets came back to haunt him Friday after a federal judge rejected his latest attempt to escape his criminal hush-money conviction.
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U.S. District Judge Alvin K. Hellerstein Trump’s bid to move the already-decided New York case into federal court, where the president sought to have his conviction overturned on presidential immunity grounds.
Hellerstein ruled on Trump’s claim that prosecutors improperly introduced evidence of his official presidential acts, including 2018 tweets attacking former fixer Michael Cohen. One warned against retaining “the services of Michael Cohen,” while another praised Paul Manafort for refusing to “break” and “make up stories.”
“There is no way that discussions regarding hush money payments to cover up the President’s relations with Stormy Daniels could be an official act,” Hellerstein wrote Friday. “An affair, or a cover-up of an affair, is not within the ‘outer perimeter’ of the President’s official responsibilities.”
The judge also accused Trump of taking “‘a second bite at the apple’, a result the law disfavors” by asking the federal court to step in after first pursuing appeals in state court, and blamed the president for delaying his request.
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“Trump’s delay in filing for removal constitutes a ‘quintessential strategic decision,’” Hellerstein wrote, adding that the “fact that he later came to view that decision as a poor one is not sufficient, by itself, to establish cause.”
He concluded: “The grounds for a second removal cited by Defendant, Donald J. Trump, are neither new nor legally sufficient. He has failed to show good cause and diligence.”
Trump was convicted in May 2024 on 34 felony counts of falsifying business records to conceal the $130,000 payment to Daniels. He is separately appealing the conviction in New York State court, according to media reports.
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