Trump in Cold Sweat as Federal Judge Rejects His Attempts to Wipe His 34 Felonies off the Books!!!

0:00Michael Popok:Donald Trump's efforts to erase from history his 34 felony count conviction for his participation in a hush money scheme to pay a porn star and the election interference that resulted in New York State Supreme Court has hit a roadblock because Judge Hellerstein, a federal judge in the Southern District of New York for the third time, has just ruled that Donald Trump cannot remove his state court conviction after trial, after verdict, after judgment. after sentencing and bring it over to federal court where he thinks he's going to be able to have some sort of federal defense, such as immunity, to get out from under that conviction and wipe it off the history books.

0:42Not so, says Judge Hellerstein, who, by the way, is now 95 years old. He's been in this case so long. He's had three rulings just like this one. And the reason it was back in front of Judge Hellerstein is because the Second Circuit Court of Appeals wanted him to do a further deep dive as to whether the immunity decision by the Supreme Court, which came about a month after the sentencing, somehow impacted his analysis. He ultimately said, and I paraphrase, no, payments to a porn star to cover up for your infidelity are not part of your presidential duties. You don't have presidential immunity. You don't have federal officer removal standing to take the case out of state court.

1:25And by the way, to answer the question asked by the Second Circuit, Judge Hellerstein says, you're too late. You're too late to have raised it. You're too late after sentencing to have brought this motion for removal denied. The judge also spent a considerable amount of time in his 35-page opinion, which is now up on Legal AF Substack, saying that Donald Trump has tried to play both sides of the fence. He's tried to get two bites at the apple. This case was brought by the Manhattan District Attorney's Office,

1:56Michael Popok:Alvin Bragg, against Donald Trump in state court. Donald Trump pursued all of his avenues of appeal in state court. He tried to get the case kicked out at the very beginning and failed. The case went through all the way to trial. He then tried to appeal it, and that failed at the highest levels of New York. He then tried to get the judge to postpone sentencing while he pursued other options. Then the immunity decision came out. The whole time he stays in the state court. It's only like 60 days after he finally fails in state court does he try to come over and argue, oh, I really should have been in federal court the whole time.

2:39You mean for the last three years? I mean, after he lost on the removal the first time with Judge Hellerstein, he could have taken an appeal all the way up to the United States Supreme Court on the issue, but he didn't.

2:52Michael Popok:And that is also a waiver. And for those reasons, the judge has denied this motion and it's going to stay here and it's responding to the second attempt at removal. I'm Michael Popak. Hit the free subscribe button here on this Saturday. I'm excited. Let's get to the explanation of what just happened in this case. I'll start reading from sections of it now because I always bring the receipts. Here's what he says. First, he outlines the scheme for which Donald Trump was convicted, in case you forgot, on page two. He says the indictment was filed. The New York County District Attorney's Office, the people, allege that from August 2015 to December 2017, Trump orchestrated a scheme with others to influence the 2016 presidential election by suppressing negative information about him to benefit his electoral prospects.

3:49Michael Popok:This is what Trump was convicted by a Manhattan jury of having done unanimously. As part of this scheme, the people allege that at Trump's request, a lawyer who worked for the Trump organization, Michael Cohen, covertly paid$130 ,000 to an adult film actress, we know that's Stormy Daniels, shortly before the election to prevent her from publicizing a sexual encounter with Trump. Cohen, following Trump's instructions, proceeded to pay the adult film star Stephanie Clifford, aka Stormy Daniels, using a shell corporation. After the election, Trump reimbursed Cohen, disguising each check as a payment for legal services rendered in a given month of 2017 pursuant to a retainer agreement.

4:37Michael Popok:Now, I know Michael Cohen has flipped again and tried to recant his testimony, but nothing about his testimony that he gave to that jury is false. I don't believe Michael Cohen perjured himself. I don't believe Michael Cohen believes he perjured himself. He told the truth about those transactions. The jury, along with lots of other evidence, believed him and convicted Donald Trump. And I don't care what Michael Cohen is running around saying these days on his radio show to try to get into the good graces of his old boss. Let's turn to the next observation. He says that back in the original ruling by Judge Hellerstein, He said that I ruled, that's on page three, hush money paid to an adult film star is not related to a president's official acts and does not reflect in any way the color of the president's official duties.

5:29See, Trump wants to argue, well, everything he did when he got back to, when he actually won the election and he had to complete the conspiracy by continuing to pay off Stormy Daniels because of course he's too cheap to do it all in one payment. They did it in payments. And so there were more checks that needed to be written. You know, for this multi-billionaire guy, why he couldn't just stroke one big check to Stormy Dane goes, I don't know. But there were multiple checks. So this conspiracy started when Donald Trump was not president of the United States, about sex acts when he was not president of the United States.

6:00The only aspect was not the conspiracy. It was the completion of paying the payments for the conspiracy when Donald Trump returned to the Oval Office and Michael Cohen visited him a couple of times and a couple of personal checks got written. They weren't written on the White House bank account. They were written on Donald Trump's personal bank account. That's why all of these acts are personal and private in nature, an affair, sex act, the cover-up of it, and not presidential duties. And if they're not presidential duties, even if you stretch the definition of presidential duties out to its furthest extremes, it still falls outside of presidential conduct, even when you interpret it to the farthest regions and reaches of presidential conduct, plain and simple.

6:50And that's why he doesn't have the right to remove it. And that's why he's not a federal officer candidate to remove this case from state court to federal court, especially given the time delay, especially trying to play both sides of the fence and waiting to see what the state would do before moving it. And especially because this attempt at removal happened after his sentencing. That's not the purpose of the removal statute. If you've got a legitimate defense as a federal officer, you get to try your case in federal court. Not when you become president of the United States the second time, you get to send your lawyers in to argue all over again after sentencing that you get to take the case to federal court.

7:31I mean, anybody, even non-lawyers understand those basic principles.

7:36Michael Popok:Here's what Judge Hellerstein said on page four. He says he recognizes that in Trump versus the United States, which is the immunity decision, which came about a month after the sentencing in June of 2024, that the Supreme Court held that the president maintains at least a presumptive immunity from criminal prosecution for a president's acts within the outer perimeter of his official responsibility. So you stretch it, you stretch it. But that doesn't mean that everything a president does in his private affairs, no pun intended, are covered by immunity. He then says, Judge Hellerstein says on page 11, the Second Circuit, which sent the case back to him, asks if removal is available at this stage of a criminal case.

8:29Michael Popok:After a federal officer has been convicted, sentenced, judgment entered, an appeal noticed. I hold that it is not available because it is counter to the policy behind the rule. Then he goes down, the judge does, and takes apart the arguments made by Donald Trump about witnesses that he says, oh, they all worked in the White House. So this must be a federal officer thing. You know, this must be part of my immunity, right? And he says, all right, what's the testimony you're talking about? Hope Hicks, press secretary, Madeline Westerhoot, who worked in the, like sort of the secretary for Donald Trump in the executive office, and Michael Cohen, who was not working in the White House, but was visiting the White House to pick up checks, apparently.

9:14Here's what they said about each of those.

9:20Michael Popok:As to Hope Hicks, and the cover-up, he said on page 20, paying hush money to an adult film star or engaging in a cover-up of an embarrassment are not subsumed in presidential immunity. It's not an official act. Instead, it would be an unofficial conduct that would not be covered by immunity. So just because Hope Hicks worked for the president didn't mean that at that moment she wasn't working on a personal story about President Trump's unofficial acts before he was president. Same thing for Madeline Westerhoot, about her observations about Trump's actions in the White House. That does not constitute official acts, he says on page 25.

10:04Michael Popok:A president's assistant can work on unofficial personal matters for the president, the judge writes. Such was the case here, as Westerhoot testified regarding how she coordinated and worked on personal matters for Trump, including assisting him in processing the personal checks to Michael Cohen, checks that repaid his outlay to Stormy Daniels, none of which is official conduct. Let's remember this. Michael Cohen stroked the check for$130 ,000 to Stormy Daniels. The checks back to Michael Cohen, because Donald Trump is so cheap, came in pieces. There were three or four checks to Michael Cohen to give him a bonus because he's going to have to reflect it in his tax returns to give him.

10:47Michael Popok:So he ended up getting about$300 ,000 or$400 ,000 to cover up for the$130 ,000 that was paid to Stormy Daniels. And those were done in separate checks through an arrangement of Madeline Westerhout. Where is that in the Constitution or even the Supreme Court as presidential functions? It isn't. And then similarly, the judge says that when you're tweeting, remember tweets? When President Trump is tweeting about this affair and the Stormy Daniels and Michael Cohen, those are not official acts that could not be that or that create federal removal powers. He says, for instance, on page 29 of the of the order, he says in President Trump makes a statement regarding the payments to Cohen and Daniels in a tweet stating that they were a private agreement for which no campaign funds were used.

11:40Michael Popok:Here was Trump about Cohen. Mr. Cohen, an attorney, received a monthly retainer not from the campaign, having nothing to do with the campaign, for which he entered into, through reimbursement, a private contract between two parties. These agreements are very common with celebrities. What is he trying to say? That Cohen just paid the money to Stormy Daniels, wasn't expecting to get it paid back? In this case, the agreement was used to stop the false and extortionist accusations made by her about an affair, despite already having signed a detailed letter admitting that there was no affair. Prior to its violation by Ms.

12:17Michael Popok:Clifford, this was a private agreement. Okay. Judge says these statements are unofficial. They relate to personal matters and to campaign issues. defendant was speaking as a candidate or party leader or in a personal capacity explaining a campaign issue after the fact not an official issue in the public interest um and then him bragging about Cohen as a lawyer at the time who can forget in 2018 Trump tweeting if anyone's looking for a good lawyer I would strongly suggest that you don't retain the services of Michael Cohen. They've gotten back together again, in case you've heard. I'm going to continue to follow what happens next.

12:57Michael Popok:The Trump administration has already said that they're taking an appeal. And you know, it's really upsetting to me to hear what was once a proud law firm called Sullivan and Cromwell stoop so low and become so unprofessional. I mean, who's writing their press releases for them now in cases involving Donald Trump? This was an upper crust white shoe firm in New York. I mean, I kicked their ass a couple of times in cases, but I mean, it was a very upper, upper crust, upper class law firm. What happened to it? Who's writing your press releases? Here's what the spokesperson for Trump's legal team said, which apparently I guess is from Sullivan and Cromwell.

13:42Michael Popok:The Supreme Court's historic decision on immunity, the federal and New York state constitutions and other established legal precedent mandate that the witch hunt perpetrated by the Manhattan DA be removed to federal court and immediately overturned and dismissed. President Trump will be filing a powerful appeal and will continue defeating Democrat weaponization at every turn. That is a political rant of the first order and is also not, none of that is as actually accurate or true. Where's the press release that says, well, I wrote it out in state court, hoping that I'd get a good ruling in state court.

14:18Michael Popok:And then I hoped I'd get elected president again. And then after I got elected president again, and I got an immunity decision, I decided to try to go back to federal court after I was sentenced to get the case removed to federal court. I mean, where is all of that? I don't speak gibberish, but that is gibberish, but also a political attack of the first order. Appreciate you all being here. Hit the free subscribe button. We're going to be redesigning our free subscribe button soon and help us continue to build our pro-democracy channel. Until my next report, I'm Michael Popak. Popak here. When life changes in an instant because of an injury or the bad acts of another, you need fighters in your corner.

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