Donald Trump seeks to move NY criminal case to federal court
Source: AP
NEW YORK (AP) — Donald Trump ’s lawyers have asked a federal court to take control of his New York City criminal case. They argued Thursday that the former president can’t be tried in the state court where his historic indictment was brought because the alleged conduct occurred while he was in office.
In court papers, Trump’s lawyers said the criminal case “involves important federal questions,” including alleged violations of federal election law. Federal officers, including former presidents, have the right to be tried in federal court for charges arising from “conduct performed while in office,” the lawyers argued.
Echoing Trump’s claims that his indictment is “politically motivated,” lawyer Susan Necheles urged the federal court to exert its “protective jurisdiction” and seize the case from the state courts where Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg routinely practices.
Such requests are rarely granted in criminal cases, although Trump’s request is unprecedented because he’s the first former president ever charged with a crime. “This effort is extremely unlikely to succeed,” said Rebecca Roiphe, a professor at New York Law School. “It’s not even clear that this would be a particularly effective delay tactic.”
Read more: https://apnews.com/article/trump-criminal-case-federal-court-ee982a5e7d5f4edef356fb2951ca5655
Ari Melber showed a graphic with excerpts from this article, during his show, and I was like huh? When was this? Searched and here we are.
Article updated.
Original article -
In court papers, Trump’s lawyers said the criminal case “involves important federal questions,” including alleged violations of federal election law. Federal officers, including former presidents, have the right to be tried in federal court for charges arising from “conduct performed while in office,” the lawyers argued.
Such requests are rarely granted in criminal cases, although Trump’s request is unprecedented because he’s the first former president ever charged with a crime. “This effort is extremely unlikely to succeed,” said Rebecca Roiphe, a professor at New York Law School. “It’s not even clear that this would be a particularly effective delay tactic.”
Moving the case could give Trump some advantages, such as a broader, more politically diverse jury pool — but the fundamentals of the case would remain largely intact. The Manhattan district attorney’s office would still prosecute him and state law would still apply, but with the oversight of a federal judge, said University of Iowa law professor Derek Muller.
= new reply since forum marked as read
where Michael Cohen was federally charged, pleaded guilty, and served time in prison for various crimes including some financial ones as well as campaign-related ones. 45 was on the other end of the payments given to Cohen to reimburse him for his dealing with Daniels, while attempting to mask it as "business expenses", among other things.
Speculating that if there are appeals, there may be thinking that this could be done as a rebuke of a federal judge and have it run up through the federal court system right to his hand-picked SCOTUS vs running it through the NY state court appeals process. These are still state charges that are not being charged federally.
And just as I was typing this, there was a radio report on this adding that by moving to federal court, the jury pool would be broader (within the jurisdiction of SDNY) vs the state court (where the pool would be limited to the one borough - Manhattan).
I.e., - this is SDNY's borders (which actually extend outside of NYC proper) - https://www.justice.gov/usao-sdny/about-district
And within that, you can see where Manhattan is within the area that SDNY covers and could imagine the "narrower" pool for Manhattan.