Three strikes, still not out of state court. President Trump's third attempt to shove his New York hush money conviction into friendlier federal territory was rejected Friday by U.S. District Judge Alvin Hellerstein, who told the president in blunt terms that covering up a porn star payoff was never part of his job description.

Hellerstein ruled that Trump's arguments for "removal" — the legal maneuver to shift the case out of Manhattan state court — were "neither new nor legally sufficient," according to reporting on the ruling. The judge did not mince words about the underlying conduct either.

"Paying hush money to an adult film star or engaging in a cover-up of an embarrassment are not subsumed in presidential immunity," Judge Hellerstein wrote.

The Numbers That Won't Go Away

The case dates back to a 2024 Manhattan jury verdict convicting Trump on 34 felony counts of falsifying business records tied to a $130,000 payment funneled through former fixer Michael Cohen to Stormy Daniels ahead of the 2016 election. Trump was sentenced in January 2025 to an "unconditional discharge" — no prison, no probation, no fine — but the felony convictions themselves stayed on the books, making him the first person to hold the presidency with a criminal record.

This was Trump's third run at moving the case to federal court, where his lawyers hoped presidential immunity doctrine might work in his favor. Hellerstein had already batted away the request once before; an appeals panel sent it back for another look, saying he'd been too quick to dismiss it. His answer, on the second pass, was the same: no.

Hellerstein also took a shot at the president's forum-shopping strategy, noting Trump "cannot play one court against another; he cannot seek victory in one court, and then, when it becomes apparent that the court will rule against him, seek to remove his case to another court," according to accounts of the ruling.

Team Trump Fires Back

A spokesman for Trump's legal team blasted the ruling as "baseless and lawless," arguing that "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." The spokesman insisted Trump had "already prevailed" at the Second Circuit Court of Appeals and vowed the president "will be filing a powerful appeal."

The ruling drew wide coverage Friday into Saturday from outlets including CNBC, CNN and The Hill, all confirming the same core finding: the Manhattan conviction is staying exactly where it is, at least for now.

Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg's office, which brought the original case, has not signaled any change in posture — it has consistently argued the case belongs in state court and involves personal conduct that predates Trump's return to office. With Trump's team now promising yet another appeal, the fight over where — and whether — this conviction gets litigated further is almost certain to drag into the fall, keeping one of the president's most personally stinging legal defeats alive in the courts even as his second term rolls on.