People of the State of New York v. Trump
Case Overview
The People of the State of New York prosecuted Donald J. Trump in state court on 34 counts of falsifying business records in the first degree, the so-called hush-money case, and a New York jury convicted him in 2024. This federal docket is Trump's second attempt to move that state criminal case into the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, filed after the Supreme Court's July 2024 presidential-immunity decision in Trump v. United States. Trump argued that the prosecution related to acts taken under color of his federal office and was preempted by the Federal Election Campaign Act, so that a federal forum and federal defenses should apply. Judge Alvin K. Hellerstein had already remanded the case to state court once; the Second Circuit vacated part of that ruling and sent three questions back to him about whether a second, untimely removal could proceed.
The Conclusion
On August 28, 2026, Judge Alvin K. Hellerstein denied Trump's motion for leave to file a second notice of removal and reaffirmed his earlier order returning the case to state court. Answering the three questions the Second Circuit put to him on remand (New York v. Trump, 158 F.4th 458 (2d Cir. 2025)), the court held that Trump had not shown the good cause and diligence required to file an untimely second removal after Trump v. United States, 603 U.S. 593 (2024); that his prosecution, in the court's words, does not intrude on the Federal Election Campaign Act's domain, so FECA neither preempts the case nor supplies a colorable federal defense; and that Trump, having dismissed his appeal of the first remand order, could not now relitigate the FECA-preemption theory he could have raised earlier. The court wrote that the grounds for a second removal cited by the defendant are neither new nor legally sufficient, and it directed the clerk to transmit the decision to the Second Circuit as the district court's answer to the mandate. Trump filed a notice of appeal the same day, so the removal question now returns to the Second Circuit. This is a ruling on where the case is heard, not a ruling on the merits of the conviction, which remain the subject of Trump's separate appeals in the New York state courts.
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