Trump calls for new judge for case

NEW YORK — Donald Trump has asked a U.S. judge in New York to take over his “flawed” criminal hush money case at the state level, saying a federal court is the appropriate forum to judge the facts of the criminal conviction obtained by Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg.

The former president filed a corresponding request with US District Judge Alvin Hellerstein in Manhattan on Thursday. He had already rejected Trump’s request to transfer the case to his court last year. This time, Trump invoked the US Supreme Court’s landmark ruling of July 1, according to which he has at least a certain immunity from criminal prosecution for his official actions as president.

Trump was found guilty by a Manhattan state jury in May on 34 counts of business fraud for concealing a $130,000 payment to a porn star before the 2016 election. Trump argued before New York State Judge Juan Merchan last month that his conviction should be overturned on immunity grounds.

Merchan has scheduled sentencing for September 18 and announced that he will rule on Trump’s immunity argument by September 16.

In his ruling last year rejecting a transfer of the case to federal court, Hellerstein said: “The evidence overwhelmingly suggests that this was a purely personal matter for the president – a cover-up of an embarrassing event.”

A spokeswoman for Bragg had no immediate comment.