Judge to consider moving Trump’s New York hush money conviction to federal court
U.S. President Donald Trump speaks during a bill signing in the Oval Office of the White House on February 03, 2026 in Washington, DC. (Photo by Alex Wong/Getty Images)
(NEW YORK) — A federal judge on Wednesday is set to consider moving President Donald Trump’s conviction in his criminal hush money case in New York to federal court, where Trump could try to overturn it.
Trump’s lawyers and prosecutors from the Manhattan district attorney’s office will argue before U.S. District Judge Alvin Hellerstein over the immunity the U.S. Supreme Court granted Trump for his official acts.
The Supreme Court decided in July 2024 that presidents are entitled to presumptive immunity for acts taken in their official capacity. Trump’s attorneys have argued that ruling means his Manhattan criminal case belongs in federal court.
Hellerstein has already denied them twice, deciding that falsifying business records before the 2016 election in order to conceal a long-denied affair with Stormy Daniels had nothing to do with the presidency.
After Trump was convicted of 34 felony counts, his attorneys went back to Hellerstein, who was still not convinced, writing that “hush-money payments were private, unofficial acts, outside the bounds of executive authority.”
The 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ordered Hellerstein to take another look.
New York Judge Juan Merchan sentenced Trump last year to an unconditional discharge without prison, fines or probation. Prosecutors have argued that the “advanced stage” of the case weighs against moving it into federal court.
Trump was found guilty of orchestrating an illegal scheme to influence the 2016 presidential election by directing his personal lawyer at the time, Michael Cohen, to pay $130,000 to adult film actress Stormy Daniels to prevent her from publicly revealing a long-denied sexual encounter with Trump.
Trump is separately pursuing an appeal through the state court system.
(WASHINGTON) — With the future of the prosecution of James Comey in doubt after a judge expressed alarm Monday about a “disturbing pattern of profound investigative missteps” in the case, lawyers for the former FBI director are due in federal court Wednesday to argue that the indictment be thrown out over concerns it’s the product of a vindictive prosecution.
Defense lawyers have argued that the prosecutors are engaging in an act of political retribution at the behest of President Donald Trump — who they allege “expressly sought charges regardless of the facts” — to punish Comey for his outspoken criticism of the president.
“Bedrock principles of due process and equal protection have long ensured that government officials may not use courts to punish and imprison their perceived personal and political enemies. But that is exactly what happened here,” Comey’s lawyers argued in court filings.
Amid an ongoing investigation into Russian meddling in the 2016 election, Trump abruptly fired Comey in 2017 and has repeatedly called for him to be criminally charged. A prosecutor handpicked by Trump brought an indictment against Comey in September, despite career prosecutors identifying critical flaws in the case and recommending against charges, ABC News previously reported.
“Objective evidence establishes that President Trump directed the prosecution of Mr. Comey in retaliation for Mr. Comey’s public criticisms and to punish Mr. Comey because of personal spite,” Comey’s attorneys argued.
Comey’s lawyers have argued that the case should be thrown out because Trump has “genuine animus” for the former FBI director, and the case itself would likely not have been brought absent the intervention of the president himself.
When Trump’s original pick to lead the United States Attorney’s Office in the Eastern District of Virginia declined to bring charges against Trump’s adversaries, the president fired him and installed his former defense attorney with what sources said was the express mandate of bringing charges against Comey and others.
“When no career prosecutor would carry out those orders, the President publicly forced the interim U.S. Attorney to resign and directed the Attorney General to effectuate ‘justice’ against Mr. Comey,” Comey’s lawyers argued.
The two-count indictment against Comey claims that he lied to Congress when he testified that he never authorized other FBI officials to leak information to the press, despite allegedly directing a Columbia University professor to pass information to a New York Times reporter. Comey pleaded not guilty to the charges and denies ever authorizing anyone at the FBI to leak information on his behalf.
Prosecutors argue that Comey’s motion falls short of the high legal standard to prove a vindictive prosecution, claiming that he cannot prove the case was brought “solely to punish” him for his criticism of the president. Highlighting Comey’s role leading the FBI, prosecutors argued that him making false statements “implicates societal interests of the highest order. ”
“The Executive cannot be expected to ignore agency heads lying about official actions simply because they later become outspoken critics,” prosecutors argued.
Instead of directly refuting what defense lawyers say is “smoking gun evidence” — a Sept. 20 social media post in which Trump directly demanded that Attorney General Pam Bondi act “NOW!!!” to prosecute Comey — prosecutors have sought to infuse the record with emails and notes suggesting that Comey used a conduit to pass information to the press. Prosecutors have also argued that Interim U.S. Attorney Lindsey Halligan, who made the unusual move to present Comey’s indictment before a grand jury on her own, does not have animus for Comey, even if the president does.
Prosecutors also pushed back on the claim that Trump’s social media posts prove that the prosecution is vindictive; instead, they argue that Trump’s social media posts alleging Comey committed crimes create “a years-long record of legitimate” reasons to bring a case against the former FBI director.
“The defendant primarily cites the President’s social-media posts. These posts reflect the President’s view that the defendant has committed crimes that should be met with prosecution. They may even suggest that the President disfavors the defendant. But they are not direct evidence of a vindictive motive,” prosecutors wrote.
Wednesday’s hearing comes as Halligan’s actions are attracting scrutiny from a magistrate judge who expressed alarm that a “disturbing pattern of profound investigative missteps” may have irreparably harmed the case. In a scathing ruling on Monday, Judge William Fitzpatrick said he identified at least two instances when Halligan made “fundamental misstatements of the law” during her grand jury presentation as well as raised concerns that Comey’s indictment may not have been fully presented to the grand jury.
“If this procedure did not take place, then the Court is in uncharted legal territory in that the indictment returned in open court was not the same charging document presented to and deliberated upon by the grand jury,” Fitzpatrick said.
Fitzpatrick ordered prosecutors to hand over audio recordings of the grand jury proceedings to defense lawyers, though U.S. District Judge Michael Nachmanoff delayed that decision to hear objections from prosecutors. The dispute is expected to come up during Wednesday’s hearing in addition to the motion to dismiss.
(NEW YORK) — A major winter storm is expected to bring ice and snow to the upper Midwest on Thursday, with the system moving through the lower Northeast on Friday and ending by Saturday morning.
Freezing rain is forecast to move through northern Minneapolis and Wisconsin on Thursday evening. The rain is expected to reach Michigan on Friday morning, moving into western and central Pennsylvania later in the morning.
Most of the freezing rain and ice accumulation is expected in central and western Pennsylvania.
Snow flurries could begin as early as noon on Thursday in New York City, though most of the forecast snow is expected to fall after 4 p.m.
Snowfall is expected to continue through Thursday night in New York City, upstate New York, New Jersey, eastern Pennsylvania, Connecticut, Rhode Island and Massachusetts — though Boston is not expected to see significant snow.
Much of the heavy to moderate snowfall is expected to end by 4 a.m. on Sunday. Snowfall is forecast to end entirely by Saturday morning between 8 a.m. and 11 a.m.
New York City, northern New Jersey, the southern Hudson Valley and western Pennsylvania are expected to see the most snow accumulation, with more than half a foot possible. Some areas could see up to 8 or 9 inches of snow.
Ice accumulation could reach more than a quarter of an inch in central Pennsylvania, such as in Johnstown and Clarion. Drivers along the I-80 and I-70 have been advised to use extreme caution. Power outages are also possible with high levels of icing.
Up to 0.2 inches of ice accumulation is possible for areas of northeastern West Virginia and through central and northwestern Pennsylvania, plus up through much of Michigan, including Detroit. Driving is expected to be difficult on untreated surfaces.
Washington, D.C., and Baltimore may also see some ice accumulation on Friday and into Friday night.
Across the upper Midwest, ice accumulation of around 0.2 inches is possible from northern Minnesota through northern Wisconsin and Michigan.
Nick Reiner, son of Rob Reiner is arrested in Los Angeles, Dec. 14, 2025. LAPD
(LOS ANGELES) — Nick Reiner, who is accused of killing his parents, renowned Hollywood director Rob Reiner and wife Michele Singer Reiner, made a brief first appearance in court on Wednesday.
He waived the right to a speedy arraignment. The arraignment is set for Jan. 7.
Nick Reiner was charged Tuesday with two counts of first-degree murder, with the special circumstance of multiple murders, for allegedly stabbing his parents to death early on Sunday, Los Angeles County District Attorney Nathan Hochman said.
The charges carry a maximum sentence of life in prison without the possibility of parole or the death penalty, Hochman said.
“No decision at this point has been made with respect to the death penalty,” Hochman said.
“Our hearts go out to the entire Reiner family,” Jackson said after court on Wednesday. “There are very, very complex and serious issues that are associated with this case.”
“We ask that during this process, you allow the system to move forward in the way that it was designed … not with jumping to conclusions, but with restraint and with dignity and with the respect that this system and this process deserves and that the family deserves,” Jackson said.
New videos obtained by ABC News appear to show the moments leading up to Nick Reiner’s arrest on Sunday night.
One of the videos appears to show Nick Reiner moments before his arrest near the University of Southern California. In the video, he’s wearing jeans, a striped jacket and a baseball cap. He’s seen with a red backpack slung over one shoulder as he enters a gas station and purchases a drink.
Another video shows him outside walking near a crosswalk when several police vehicles with flashing lights surround him. He can be seen in the video raising his hands.
The Reiners’ daughter found her parents’ bodies in their Brentwood home on Sunday, sources told ABC News.
A neighbor told ABC News that actors Billy Crystal and Larry David were seen at the house after police arrived on Sunday, and the neighbor said, “Billy looked like he was about to cry.”
Nick Reiner — who was living on his parents’ property, according to a former family security guard — had been open about battling drug addiction since he was a teenager. In 2016, Nick Reiner worked with his dad on the movie “Being Charlie,” which was based largely on his struggle with drug addiction.
Sources told ABC News that Nick Reiner got into an argument with his father at a holiday party on Saturday night and was seen acting strangely.
“Prosecuting cases involving family violence are some of the most challenging and heart-wrenching we face because of the intimate and often brutal nature of the crimes,” Hochman said in a statement on Tuesday.
