(Headline USA) Donald Trump’s lawyer said Thursday the former president will seek to move his New York criminal case to federal court, attempting avoid a state court trial that a Manhattan judge said he expects to hold early next year.
Trump’s lawyer, Todd Blanche, said at a hearing on an unrelated issue in the case that Trump’s defense team plans to file a motion Thursday seeking to have the case transferred from state court to federal court.
Trump pleaded not guilty a month ago to 34 felony counts of falsifying business records related to hush-money payments made during the 2016 campaign to bury allegations of extramarital sexual encounters.
Moving the case to federal court could have significant advantage for Trump, including broadening the potential jury pool beyond Manhattan, where voters have heavily favored his Democratic rivals.
Evidence of the lopsided justice system already has emerged in the statements and actions of Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg, who resurrected the case from the grave by stretching state laws to the maximum in order to circumvent a statute of limitations.
Bragg had made efforts to indict Trump a central part of his campaign for the office in 2020 following the retirement of Cyrus Vance Jr., another far-left idealogue who nonetheless had determined there was not enough evidence to proceed.
The judge in the case, Juan Merchan, also was found to have given donations in the past to Democrat campaigns, including President Joe Biden’s 2020 bid to defeat Trump.
“The Judge ‘assigned’ to my Witch Hunt Case, a ‘Case’ that has NEVER BEEN CHARGED BEFORE, HATES ME,” Trump posted in March on his Truth Social network.
Adapted from reporting by the Associated Press
