Trump’s lawyers ask New York appeals court to toss out his hush money criminal conviction

NEW YORK AP President Donald Trump s lawyers have sought a New York state appeals court to toss out his hush money criminal conviction saying federal law preempts state law and there was no intent to commit a crime The lawyers filed their written arguments with the state s mid-level appeals court just before midnight Monday In June the lawyers urged a federal appeals court to move the episode to federal court where the Republican president can challenge the conviction on presidential immunity grounds The appeals court has not yet ruled Trump was convicted in May of felony counts of falsifying business records to conceal a hush money payment to adult film actor Stormy Daniels whose affair statements threatened to upend his presidential campaign Trump denies her claim and reported he did nothing wrong It was the only one of the four criminal cases against him to go to trial Trump was sentenced in January to what s known as an unconditional discharge leaving his conviction on the books but sparing him jail probation a fine or other punishment Appearing by video at his sentencing Trump called the scenario a political witch hunt a weaponization of ruling body and an embarrassment to New York The Manhattan district attorney s office which prosecuted the event will have a chance to respond to the appeals arguments in court papers A message seeking comment was left with the office on Tuesday At trial prosecutors mentioned Trump mislabeled payments to his then-lawyer Michael Cohen as legal fees to conceal that he was definitely reimbursing the that Cohen paid Daniels to keep her quiet in the final weeks of Trump s flourishing presidential run At the time Daniels was considering going constituents with a claim that she and the married Trump had a sexual encounter that Trump has consistently denied In their arguments to the New York state appeals court Trump s lawyers wrote that the prosecution of Trump was the greater part politically charged prosecution in our Nation s history They revealed Trump was the victim of a Democrat district attorney in Manhattan who concocted a purported felony by stacking time-barred misdemeanors under a convoluted legal theory during a contentious presidential voting in which Trump was the leading Republican candidate They wrote that federal law preempts the misdemeanor-turned-felony charges because the charges rely on an alleged violation of federal campaign regulations that states cannot and have never enforced They disclosed the trial was also spoiled when prosecutors introduced official presidential acts that the Supreme Court has made clear cannot be used as evidence against a U S president Beyond these fatal flaws the evidence was clearly insufficient to convict the lawyers wrote The lawyers also attacked the conviction on the grounds that pure evidence-free speculation was behind the effort by prosecutors to persuade jurors that Trump was thinking about the balloting when he allegedly decided to reimburse Cohen