Changing courts could give Trump a new avenue to try to get the case thrown out. Hoping to get to federal court, Trump's lawyers argue that he was acting in his capacity as president when he hired and paid a personal attorney who orchestrated payouts to squelch allegations of extramarital sex -- payouts that are at the heart of Manhattan prosecutors' case against Trump.
According to the indictment, Trump fudged records at his company to cover up the nature of payments made in 2017 to his former lawyer, Michael Cohen, to compensate him for arranging to buy the women's silence and fronting the money for Daniels. Alan Garten, the Trump Organization's chief legal officer, testified that he believed the payments were partly reimbursements for the money that Cohen had paid Daniels, and partly to compensate him for "the role that he was playing as counsel" for Trump's personal matters.
After hearing Garten's testimony and arguments from both sides' lawyers, Hellerstein said the evidence suggested that Cohen "was hired privately, not under color of any presidential office or related to it."U.S. law allows criminal prosecutions to be moved from state to federal court if they involve actions taken by federal government officials as part of their official duties, among other qualifications.
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