Federal appeals court set to hear arguments in Trump's bid to erase hush money conviction

President Trump's appeal to overturn hush money conviction heads to federal court, challenging presidential immunity.

President Donald Trump's quest to erase his criminal conviction heads to a federal appeals court on Wednesday (June 11, 2025). It's one way he's trying to get last year's hush money verdict overturned.

A three-Judge panel is set to hear arguments in Mr. Trump's long-running fight to get the New York case moved from state court to federal court, where he could then try to have the verdict thrown out on presidential immunity grounds.

The Republican is asking the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals to intervene after a lower-court judge twice rejected the move. As part of the request, Mr. Trump wants the federal appeals court to seize control of the criminal case and then ultimately decide his appeal of the verdict, which is now pending in a state appellate court.

The 2nd Circuit should “determine once and for all that this unprecedented criminal prosecution of a former and current President of the United States belongs in federal court," Mr. Trump's lawyers wrote in a court filing.

The Manhattan District Attorney's office, which prosecuted Mr. Trump's case, wants it to stay in state court. Mr. Trump's Justice Department — now partly run by his former criminal defence lawyers — backs his bid to move the case to federal court.

If Mr. Trump loses, he could go to the U.S. Supreme Court.

Mr. Trump was convicted in May 2024 of 34 felony counts of falsifying business records to conceal a hush money payment to porn actor Stormy Daniels, whose affair allegations threatened to upend his 2016 presidential campaign. Mr. Trump denies her claim and said he did nothing wrong. It was the only one of his four criminal cases to go to trial.