- Trump's appeal argues his felony conviction is politically motivated and legally unfounded.
- Lawyers claim jury heard improper evidence regarding Trump's presidential duties.
- Another argument was over a donation the judge over the case made to Democrats.
President Donald Trump has formally appealed his criminal conviction in New York for state charges related to a hush money scheme. His lawyers argue the case should never have been brought to court and the verdict should be overturned.
“This is the most politically charged prosecution in our Nation’s history,” the filing begins, according to NBC News.
The appeal was filed on Monday with the state Appellate Division’s First Department, a midlevel appeals court.
“This case should never have seen the inside of a courtroom, let alone resulted in a conviction,” said the appeal, which seeks to have the entire case thrown out.
One of the arguments is that the jury was presented evidence it should not have heard related to the president’s official duties during his first term.
“The DA, a Democrat, brought those charges in the middle of a contentious Presidential election in which President Trump was the leading Republican candidate,” the lawyers wrote, according to NBC News. “These charges against President Trump were as unprecedented as their political context,” and involved “alleged conduct that has never been found to violate any New York law.”
The prosecution in the case, the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office, has declined to comment on Trump’s filing.
What is the case that Trump is trying to appeal?
In May 2024, Trump was convicted on 34 felony counts of falsifying business records. During the case, prosecutors argued the records were falsified to cover up hush money payments that Trump’s lawyer at the time, Michael Cohen, made to adult film star Stormy Daniels during the 2016 presidential election, per CNN.
Trump’s conviction made him the only former or current president to ever be convicted of a felony.
The president has denied any wrongdoing and in January he was sentenced to an “unconditional discharge,” meaning he is a convicted felon in the eyes of New York state law, but will face no further penalties.
The New York hush money case was the only one of Trump’s four criminal cases to go to trial, per USA Today. Two federal criminal cases were dropped after he won the 2024 presidential election. The fate of the fourth criminal case brought in Georgia is unclear, since a state appeals court has disallowed the local district attorney from prosecuting the case following a romantic relationship she had with another prosecutor.
Along with the appeal at the state court level, Trump’s lawyers are simultaneously trying to move the state case into federal court, where the president believes he’ll have a better chance at overturning the verdict.
What are Trump’s arguments for an appeal?
Trump’s legal team has argued that Judge Juan Merchan, who presided over the trial, made several errors. They argued that the judge should not have allowed the jury to hear evidence involving official presidential acts, including testimony from former Trump aide Hope Hicks, per USA Today.
This argument comes from a U.S. Supreme Court ruling in July 2024, which says that former presidents can’t ever be prosecuted for certain core parts of their presidencies, adding that evidence of various official presidential acts aren’t allowed to be presented to a jury.
“The Supreme Court’s historic decision on Immunity, the Federal and New York State Constitutions, and other established legal precedent mandate that this meritless hoax be immediately overturned and dismissed,” a spokesperson for Trump told CNN in a statement. “President Trump will keep defeating Democrat weaponization at every turn as he focuses on his singular mission to Make America Great Again.”
Hicks was the White House communications director during Trump’s first presidency and testified about a discussion with Trump at that time about how to respond to a news article describing Daniels’ nondisclosure agreement. Trump’s lawyers argue that her testimony was about official presidential conduct and is prohibited under the Supreme Court ruling.
They also argued that Merchan should have recused himself because of a $35 donation he made to Democrats, as well as his daughter’s job at a political consulting company that worked on the Biden campaign, per CNN.
A complaint against Merchan about that donation was dismissed by a New York commission that reviews judicial conduct, but the commission did caution him.
“There is little doubt that (New York’s district attorney) would have cried foul if Justice Merchan had donated $35 to President Trump’s 2020 campaign, and rightly so,” Trump’s lawyers wrote, per USA Today.
Another argument made by Trump’s legal team is that Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg shouldn’t have been able to prosecute Trump because federal prosecutors didn’t bring charges under a federal law that deals with campaign activity. The lawyers said that federal law blocks state prosecutors from bringing a similar case.