Federal Judge Smacks Down Donald Trump’s Latest Idiotic Legal Request

Donald Trump suffered another humiliating legal blow this week when a federal judge refused to move his hush money case (which already reached a jury verdict months ago) from state court to federal court. Trump’s legal team wanted the case moved to federal court so that they could get it dismissed on immunity grounds, but the judge smacked that down by saying that they hadn’t met the burden of proof to make that happen. Ring of Fire’s Farron Cousins explains the judge’s ruling.

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*This transcript was generated by a third-party transcription software company, so please excuse any typos.

This week Donald Trump had his lawyers approach, uh, US district Judge Alvin Hellerstein with a motion asking this federal judge, Hey Judge, how's about you? Go ahead and you take this hush money case. You just take it away from Judge Juan Marshan in the state courts and move it, if you would, to the federal courts. Because then at the federal courts, they said, you know, we can make our immunity argument. Then the whole conviction goes away. And of course, we don't have to deal with that criminal sentencing coming up in less than two weeks now. So please, for the love of God, judge, save our client. And just a few hours, hours after Trump's lawyers had filed this motion, judge, uh, uh, Hellerstein, sorry, came out and said, no, no, I'm not gonna do it because you haven't even met the burden of proof to show why this case should be moved to a federal court.

But the ruling gets even better. And I'll get to that in a minute. But let me read this. Hellerstein wrote that nothing about the, uh, oh, sorry. That's the part I gotta hold for you. Um, the defense failed to meet the high burden of proof for changing jurisdiction and that Trump's conviction for falsifying business records involved his personal life, not official actions. So why would the federal courts be worried about this? Because he wasn't a federal person at the time. He was a state guy happened in this state. The state had the jurisdiction. He violated the state laws. There's nothing federal about this case, Hellerstein said, and that's when he took it a step further in a way that could severely screw Donald Trump. Over Hellerstein wrote that nothing about the high courts July 1st ruling affected the previous conclusion that hush money payments at issue in Trump's case were private, unofficial acts outside the bounds of executive authority. In other words, Hellerstein says, you are not immune. That's Supreme Court's immunity ruling doesn't impact this case at all.

That's a problem for Donald Trump folks. Here's why. As I said, less than two weeks from now, we get that sentencing hearing unless of course it gets pushed back, which honestly is probably gonna happen. However, prior to that even happening, there is another thing that's gonna happen on September 16th that should not be pushed back. And that is Judge Marshan holding a hearing as to whether or not the Supreme Court's immunity ruling does in fact apply to this case. And thanks to Judge Hellerstein, a federal judge, we now pretty much have an answer to that question. No, a federal judge has now put it in a

Ruling that Trump does not have immunity. That these actions are not federal. And if they were, they're still not unofficial acts, or excuse me, they're not official acts. They are unofficial acts which would not be covered by immunity. Therefore, the federal judge says it is the ruling of the court that you don't have immunity. Trump might be able to appeal it. Um, we'll see. I think the judge said, no, you can't. But part of saying no, you can't actually is appealable. So they might be able to appeal the judge saying you can't appeal the case. And we, you know, it's a whole tangled web, but September 16th is right around the corner. Judge Marshan is probably gonna hand us the same ruling that Hellerstein did saying no, the Supreme Court immunity ruling does not cover this hush money case. And hopefully he'll conclude that hearing, saying, I'll see you in two days for your criminal sentencing.