Earlier this year Trump’s lawyer announced he would try to move the former president’s Stormy Daniels ‘hush payment’ case from a state court to a federal court.
Trump’s lawyers believe a move from a state court to a federal court will allow for a more diverse jury pool.
86% of people in Manhattan vote Democrat.
Judge Alvin Hellerstein signaled he would not allow Trump to move the hush payment case to a federal court.
The judge will make a decision in two weeks.
Judge Hellerstein was appointed by Bill Clinton.
ABC News reported:
A federal judge seemed disinclined on Tuesday to allow former President Donald Trump to move his criminal prosecution in New York into federal court.
“The act for which the president has been indicted does not relate to anything under the color of his office,” Judge Alvin Hellerstein said toward the end of a nearly three-hour hearing. The judge said he would issue a written ruling.
“I intend to write and issue a decision within two weeks,” the judge said.
Trump was hit with 34 felony counts after Manhattan DA Alvin Bragg sought to ‘get Trump’ in an effort to derail his 2024 presidential bid.
Trump was hit with a criminal charge for every payment he made to his former lawyer Michael Cohen in connection with the ‘hush payments’ to the two women.
Trump was charged with 34 criminal counts of falsifying business records and conspiracy.
The indictment said the payments to the two women were to silence them about the affairs ‘in order to avoid those accounts harming his chances of winning the election over Hillary Clinton.’
The prosecutors said Trump’s so-called ‘crimes’ undermined the 2016 election.
