Trump formally appeals his New York hush money conviction

ABC News ^ | October 28, 2025, 12:48 PM ET | Aaron Katersky and Peter Charalambous

[E. Pluribus Unum]

The appeal calls it the "most politically charged prosecution" in U.S. history.

New York's intermediate appellate court should overturn President Donald Trump's criminal hush money convictions because his trial was "fatally marred" by faulty evidence and overseen by a judge who should have recused himself, his attorneys argued in a court filing late Monday.

Trump's formal appeal, 17 months after a Manhattan jury found him guilty of 34 felony counts, asks the Appellate Division's First Department to reverse what his lawyers call the "most politically charged prosecution in our Nation's history."

Trump was found guilty in May 2024 after a six-week trial over what prosecutors called a scheme to conceal a $130,000 payment his former lawyer, Michael Cohen, made to adult film actress Stormy Daniels to keep her from talking about a long-denied affair ahead of the 2016 presidential election.  Trump reimbursed Cohen in monthly installments that prosecutors said amounted to falsified records.

"The DA, a Democrat, brought those charges in the middle of a contentious Presidential election in which President Trump was the leading Republican candidate. These charges against President Trump were as unprecedented as their political context," Trump's attorneys at the white shoe law firm Sullivan & Cromwell wrote in their appeal.

Under New York state law, falsifying business records becomes a felony if the records were falsified to commit or conceal another crime.  The appeal accused Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg of trying to "twist New York law" to persuade the jury that Trump violated election statutes.

"Targeting alleged conduct that has never been found to violate any New York law, the DA concocted a purported felony by stacking time-barred misdemeanors under a convoluted legal theory, which the DA then improperly obscured until the charge conference. This case should never have seen the inside of a courtroom,...

[Resolute Conservative]

Fingers crossed for a non-leftist, non-TDS judge.

[thepoodlebites]

“Judge Juan Merchan erred by allowing evidence protected by presidential immunity.” Had to read ABC News to find this turd on society, yuk.
Merchan is not a judge, he is in reality Merkin, a p*ssy hat.

[shelterguy]

I thought he would have appealed long ago.

[Rightwing Conspiratr1]

It should have been appealed because the judge gave the jury “three possible crimes” without having to specify which one.

[sauropod]

Bkmk

[CFW]

Link to Appeal:

https://static.politico.com/8b/9e/8663b7e849cf87d9220333fb3a36/2025-00648-people-of-the-state-of-v-people-of-the-state-of-appellant-s-brief-66.pdf

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Jonathan Turley
·
Oct 28, 2025
@JonathanTurley
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President Trump has filed the appeal in his criminal case. Many of us criticized the case as based on a legally unfounded legal theory tried before a highly biased judge. The brief is a devastating litany of errors ignored by a prosecutor and court hellbent on conviction...

Jonathan Turley
@JonathanTurley
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...The only silver lining is the possibility that the court system can now redeem itself and lay down new, important case law to prevent future lawfare abuses of this kind.