Is it “presidential” to falsify business records in connection with a porn star hush money scheme? The seemingly absurd question is one way to look at the fight brewing over Donald Trump’s attempt to move his New York state prosecution to federal court.
That’s because for the former president to succeed, he needs to show that he was a federal officer who now faces charges for conduct arising “under color of” his office, and that he has a colorable federal defense. Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg basically says there’s no way that Trump can win removal from state court, because the case involves a personal matter, even if Trump was president when he reimbursed his former fixer, Michael Cohen, for paying Stormy Daniels hush money ahead of the 2016 presidential election. The adult film star alleges she had sex with Trump, which he has denied.
As Bragg put it in his filing Tuesday, Trump’s alleged conduct “had no connection to his official duties and responsibilities as President, but instead arose from his unofficial actions relating to his private businesses and pre-election conduct.” The Democratic prosecutor cites Trump’s own tweets to that effect in 2018, in which the then-president referred to Daniels’ nondisclosure agreement that she signed for $130,000 as a “private contract” and a “private agreement.”
Bragg also cites the words of former Trump personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani in, among other places, an appearance with Sean Hannity on Fox News in 2018. Bragg’s motion quotes Giuliani as saying: “When I heard Cohen’s retainer of $35,000 when he was doing no work for the president, I said that’s how he’s repaying — that’s how he’s repaying it with a little profit and a little margin for paying taxes for Michael.” (Cohen was repaid by Trump in $35,000 installments, which Bragg alleges were falsely characterized as payments for legal services rendered pursuant to a retainer agreement.)
The prosecution also…
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