President Trump will try to move the Stormy ‘hush payment’ case from a state court to a federal court.
Trump’s lawyer, Todd Blanche, on Thursday made the announcement during a hearing, the Associated Press reported.
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.
A federal judge will then have to approve whether the case can be moved.
AP reported:
Donald Trump’s lawyer said Thursday the former president will seek to move his New York criminal case to federal court, a long-shot bid to avoid a trial in the state court where the indictment was brought.
Trump’s lawyer, Todd Blanche, said at a hearing on an unrelated issue in the case that Trump’s defense team plans to file a motion Thursday asking to transfer the historic case from state court to federal court.
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.
