Donald Trump lost another attempt Friday to pull his New York hush money case into federal court, keeping his 34 felony convictions in the state court system for now. According to Reuters, U.S. District Judge Alvin Hellerstein denied Trump’s renewed request on August 28, 2026, after reconsidering the case at the direction of a federal appeals court. The ruling is the latest setback in Trump’s effort to erase the Trump felony conviction that followed his historic 2024 criminal trial in Manhattan.
“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,” Hellerstein wrote, according to Reuters. The judge also rejected Trump’s argument that the Supreme Court’s presidential immunity ruling transformed the New York prosecution into a federal matter. “Paying hush money to an adult film star or engaging in a cover-up of an embarrassment are not subsumed in presidential immunity,” Hellerstein wrote.
The decision leaves the Trump felony conviction intact while Trump continues challenging the verdict through two different appellate tracks. Reuters reported that Trump’s lawyers filed notice Friday indicating they intend to appeal Hellerstein’s ruling. At the same time, his direct challenge to the criminal judgment remains pending before New York’s Appellate Division, First Department.
A Manhattan jury convicted Trump in May 2024 on 34 felony counts of falsifying business records. According to Reuters, prosecutors accused Trump of disguising reimbursements connected to a $130,000 payment made to Stormy Daniels before the 2016 election. Daniels has said she had a sexual encounter with Trump, which Trump denies. Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s office argued that the business records were falsified as part of an effort to conceal information that could have damaged Trump politically during the campaign.
Justice Juan Merchan sentenced Trump on January 10, 2025, to an unconditional discharge, according to Reuters. That sentence imposed no prison time, probation, or fine, but it left the Trump felony conviction on the books. Trump has denied wrongdoing and has repeatedly argued that the case was politically motivated.
Friday’s decision follows a long fight over whether the case could be moved from New York court into federal court. According to the Second Circuit’s November 2025 opinion, Hellerstein initially rejected Trump’s effort to remove the prosecution before trial. Trump renewed the effort after his conviction and after the Supreme Court issued its July 1, 2024 decision in Trump v. United States, which established immunity from criminal prosecution for certain official presidential acts and restrictions on using evidence of immune official conduct.
The Second Circuit did not rule that Trump was entitled to transfer the case. Instead, the appeals court vacated Hellerstein’s earlier decision and instructed him to examine the issue more closely, including whether evidence used during Trump’s trial related to official conduct and whether Trump had shown sufficient cause for filing his removal request late. The appeals court specifically said it was expressing no view on how Hellerstein ultimately should rule.
By the time the case returned to Hellerstein, however, the judge was already openly skeptical of Trump’s timing. During a February 4 hearing, Hellerstein told Trump’s attorneys, “I think we are beating a dead horse,” as he questioned why the defense pursued immunity arguments in state court before returning to federal court.
Hellerstein characterized that choice as deliberate. “That’s a strategic decision,” he said. When Trump’s lawyers argued that they had first allowed Merchan to consider the immunity question out of respect for the state judge, Hellerstein responded, “Whether Judge Merchan would have been pleased or displeased is totally irrelevant,” according to All Rise News. He called the choice to litigate the issue in state court “fatal” to the federal removal argument.
The dispute centered heavily on timing. After the Supreme Court issued its immunity ruling, Trump’s lawyers first challenged the conviction before Merchan. They later returned to federal court seeking removal. Hellerstein said during the February hearing that the defense was effectively looking for a “second bite of the apple” after failing to obtain the result it wanted in state court. Friday’s written ruling adopted that reasoning, with Hellerstein finding that Trump had not demonstrated the diligence required to excuse the late filing.
The unusual procedural posture also troubled the judge because Trump had already been tried, convicted and sentenced. “Here, there’s nothing for me to do,” Hellerstein said during the February hearing, according to All Rise News. Moving the completed criminal case into federal court would largely have shifted the route of appellate review rather than produced a new trial before Hellerstein.
Trump’s lawyers have separately argued that certain trial evidence should have been excluded under the Supreme Court’s immunity doctrine. That evidence included testimony involving former White House communications director Hope Hicks and former Oval Office operations director Madeleine Westerhout, as well as some of Trump’s social media activity. During the February federal hearing, Trump attorney Jeffrey Wall noted that prosecutors had previously described Hicks’ testimony as the “nail in the coffin” for the defense, according to All Rise News.
Prosecutors have rejected the idea that the challenged evidence requires overturning the Trump felony conviction. According to ABC News, the Manhattan District Attorney’s office told the Appellate Division in a July 29 filing that the prosecution arose from Trump’s unofficial conduct and argued that evidence unaffected by presidential immunity overwhelmingly supported the verdict. Prosecutors are asking the state appeals court to affirm all 34 counts.
The state appeal also challenges other aspects of the trial, including Merchan’s refusal to recuse himself. ABC News reported that prosecutors rejected that argument as well and said there was no ethical requirement for Merchan to step aside.
Friday’s federal ruling does not end Trump’s legal challenges. His lawyers can appeal Hellerstein’s decision again to the Second Circuit, while the New York appellate court will separately decide whether the original conviction should stand. Depending on how the state process unfolds, further review could eventually be sought before New York’s highest court and potentially the U.S. Supreme Court on federal constitutional questions.
But Hellerstein’s latest decision closes, at least for now, the specific route Trump had sought to move the already completed prosecution into federal court. His position at the February hearing foreshadowed where he ultimately landed, including his statement that Trump is “not above the law.”
