"So much winning": Trump's bid to dodge NY judge he hates shot down after surprise witness backfires
Legal experts say Trump's lawyers screwed up big time
"So much winning": Trump's bid to dodge NY judge he hates shot down after surprise witness backfires (Yeah, it's apparent how much "winning" you're engaged in with those SEVENTY-ONE FELONY CHARGES sticking out yer ass, you fat, fucking rapist 
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Tatyana Tandanpolie
Wed, June 28, 2023 at 8:07 AM PDT·5 min read
Donald TrumpScott Olson/Getty Images
A federal judge on Tuesday was unswayed by former President Donald Trump's request to move his hush-money case from a New York state court to federal court, leaving the case before the same judge who sentenced the Trump Organization for tax fraud earlier this year.
After a three-hour hearing that yielded poor results for Trump's team, U.S. District Judge Alvin Hellerstein indicated that he would rule against the former president in the days to come. According to The Daily Beast, Trump's lawyer, Todd Blanche, failed to prove that Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg's case prompts legal concerns that are better addressed in federal court such as "matters relating to whether a president can be sued for conduct relating to his official duties or committing federal crimes, as opposed to local ones."
The judge, instead, countered that all of Trump's alleged crimes revolve around his personal affairs.
"There's no relation to any act of the president," Hellerstein said, calling Trump's relationship with lawyer Michael Cohen, who illegally paid off an adult film star, a "private hiring."
Trump was indicted in late March over his alleged role in the scheme to pay off adult film actress Stormy Daniels in an effort to keep knowledge of their alleged extramarital affair from nearly a decade prior away from the public. Bragg charged Trump with 34 counts of falsifying business records to cover up the $130,000 expense and the $420,000 reimbursement he later gave Cohen.
Cohen was sent to federal prison for his role in the scheme in 2019, but Trump, who was still president, evaded prosecution at the time. Bragg's predecessor, Cyrus Vance, however, launched an investigation into Trump, which ended in Bragg convening the grand jury this year that voted to indict him.
The case being arguably better suited for the federal court system has largely motivated Trump's attempts to have it moved, according to the report. But he and his team have also been trying to avoid Justice Juan Merchan, the state court judge who oversaw the criminal trial in which the Trump Organization was convicted of tax fraud. Even-tempered despite the former president's jabs at him and his family, Merchan has also restricted Trump's access to the documents in the case.
