President Donald Trump attends inauguration ceremonies in the Rotunda of the US Capitol in Washington, DC on January 20, 2025 (Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)
President Donald Trump sought to overturn his status as the only felon elected president by appealing his conviction on 34 New York state charges shortly before midnight Tuesday, arguing, among other things, that the 2024 U.S. Supreme Court decision granting the president broad immunity invalidated the conviction.
In a 96-page appeal Nearly 18 months after his conviction in state court that he falsified business records by disguising hush-money payments from an alleged affair with adult film star Stormy Daniels as legitimate payments, Trump’s lawyers laid out a list of complaints about his prosecution.
Those complaints included that New York District Attorney Alvin Bragg, a Democrat, targeted the then-president and that the presiding Democratic judge gave at least the appearance of partisanship, the appeal says.
“This is the most politically controversial prosecution in our nation’s history,” the lengthy letter began. “After years of unsuccessful investigations into decades-old, baseless allegations – and under immense political pressure to criminally charge President Donald J. Trump with anything – the New York District Attorney has filed felony charges against a former and now sitting President of the United States.”
Bragg’s office declined to comment on the appeal Tuesday.
Hush money
The case centered on payments that Michael Cohen, Trump’s former personal attorney, made to Daniels in the run-up to the 2016 election. Trump wanted to stop her from telling the National Enquirer tabloid about a date she allegedly had years earlier with the married Trump.
After Trump won the White House, his private company reimbursed Cohen for the payment to Daniels, the 2023 indictment says.
Federal prosecutors had been investigating whether the payment to Daniels might have violated campaign finance laws. Cohen paid Daniels to stop her from publishing her account during Trump’s campaign against Hillary Clinton in 2016.
They ultimately declined to press charges.
Trump’s appeal this week said New York prosecutors improperly relied on campaign finance violations to charge him with falsifying business records.
To be charged as a felony, the business records must have been falsified as part of another crime, but Trump argued Monday that those allegations could not have been charged because federal law takes precedence over state law.
New York law also requires prosecutors to prove that the defendant had “intent to defraud” in order to secure a conviction for falsifying business records. Bragg and his team did not do that during the trial, Trump’s lawyers said.
SCOTUS immunity ruling
Trump’s lawyers also said the trial court admitted evidence that should have been protected by presidential immunity, pointing to a U.S. Supreme Court ruling last year that provided broad protections for sitting presidents.
The Supreme Court’s opinion said that not only was the president protected from criminal charges based on official actions, but also that official actions could not be used as evidence to support an allegation involving an unofficial action.
The indictment covered some official actions Trump took while in office, his lawyers said.
Prosecutors examined Hope Hicks, a former Trump White House communications director, Trump’s statements on social media, communications with former Attorney General Jeff Sessions – which Trump denies – and the president’s general work habits while in office.
These examples should all be considered official actions that cannot be used in a criminal case, Trump’s lawyers wrote.
Lack of rejection was addressed
Trump’s lawyers also argued that Judge Juan Merchan, who oversaw the trial, should have recused himself.
Merchan donated a total of $25 to Joe Biden’s 2020 campaign and to a political action committee called Stop Republicans.
The nominal contributions violated a “clear barrier to sitting judges making political donations,” Trump’s lawyers wrote.
His daughter also worked for a political organization that opposed Trump in 2020, the letter said.
Trump had asked Merchan to recuse himself during the trial, but the judge refused. Trump’s lawyers said Monday that this was “clear grounds for overturning” the ruling.
“Given all of these undisputed and damaging facts, Judge Merchan’s refusal to recuse himself created at least the appearance of bias,” they wrote.
Elected felon
Whatever problems arose from Trump’s prosecution in New York, it had the political effect of boosting his stagnant comeback campaign.
At the nadir of his popularity following his 2020 election loss and the attack on the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021, several credible challengers entered the Republican presidential nomination for the 2024 cycle, and Florida Governor Ron DeSantis was leading in some early polls.
But four prosecutions, of which the New York hush money case was the first, had the effect of mobilizing Republicans and other voters who believed the former president was the victim of a political prosecution, and he handily won the Republican nomination.
The prosecutions took place during the 2024 election campaign, and a New York jury convicted Trump on May 30 of 34 felonies. He became the first former president to be convicted of a crime.
He won the November election and became the first felon elected president.
He managed to delay sentencing until after the 2024 election. Merchan imposed an unconditional discharge sentence on January 10, 2025, allowing Trump to avoid prison time.
