While requests to move criminal cases from state to federal court are rarely granted, the prosecution of Trump is unprecedented. Company documents recorded them generally as legal expenses. On being shown some of Trump’s ledgers, Garten also testified that “the vast majority” of attorney payments were accompanied by some description of the lawyers’ work, though there was no such description for the monthly $35,000 payments that went to Cohen throughout 2017. However, Garten said he knew of no written retainer agreement between Trump and Cohen, though Trump’s attorneys “typically” had them. Pressed by Hellerstein to prove it, Trump lawyer Todd Blanche called the legal chief of Trump’s company to the witness stand, though attorneys for both sides last week had agreed they would not call witnesses at the hearing.Īlan Garten, the Trump Organization’s chief legal officer, testified that he believed the payments were partly reimbursements for the money that Cohen had paid Daniels, and partly to compensate him for “the role that he was playing as counsel” for Trump’s personal matters. Trump’s lawyers have said those payments to Cohen were legitimate legal expenses and not part of any cover-up. He said his remarks reflected his “present attitudes,” and a formal written ruling will follow within two weeks. “There’s no reason to believe that an equal measure of justice could not be rendered by the state court,” Hellerstein added. Hellerstein told a packed courtroom that he was not ready to make a “firm ruling” but saw “no relationship to any official act of the president” in the alleged conduct that made Trump the first former president ever charged with a crime. Hoping to get to federal court, Trump’s lawyers argue that he was acting in his capacity as president when he hired and paid a personal attorney who orchestrated payouts to squelch allegations of extramarital sex - payouts that are at the heart of Manhattan prosecutors’ case against Trump.Īfter a three-hour hearing that featured surprise testimony from a Trump company insider, Judge Alvin K. NEW YORK (AP) - The hush money case against former President Donald Trump appears headed back to a New York court after a federal judge showed little inclination Tuesday to let Trump move the history-making prosecution to federal court.Ĭhanging courts could give Trump a new avenue to try to get the case thrown out.
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