Trump launches appeal of NY criminal hush money conviction. What could he argue?
President Donald Trump appealed his New York criminal hush money conviction Wednesday, after he was sentenced Jan. 10 for falsifying business records to cover up a hush money payment to a porn star.
Trump's notice of appeal jumpstarts the process for trying to get his felony conviction tossed out, which could take months or years to play out. The president failed in his earlier efforts to challenge the conviction and prevent his sentencing from happening, with the Supreme Court ruling in a 5-4 vote that his arguments could be addressed in a later appeal.
Trump was convicted May 30 of falsifying records to obscure that he was reimbursing his then-lawyer, Michael Cohen, for paying adult film star Stormy Daniels $130,000 to stay quiet ahead of the 2016 presidential election about an alleged sexual encounter with Trump. The real estate mogul has denied the encounter took place.
After winning the November presidential election, Trump is taking office as the first U.S. president convicted of a felony. While it's unclear whether presidents can pardon themselves, it is clear they can't pardon anyone for a state crime, such as his New York conviction. Trump's appeal therefore may be his final hope to clear the conviction from his record.
What are Trump's arguments on appeal?
When his lawyers lay out his full argument down the line, a lot of their focus could be on the Supreme Court's July 1 presidential immunity ruling, in which conservative justices on the high court – addressing a separate criminal case Trump was facing – declared that current and former presidents can't be prosecuted for various alleged crimes related to their presidencies.
Five of the six Republican-appointed justices on the court said in that ruling that evidence of various official presidential acts can't be used in a prosecution. Trump has since argued that his conviction must be tossed because the Manhattan jury that found him guilty heard testimony and received evidence related to Trump's first presidency.
Already, Manhattan Judge Juan Merchan rejected that argument ahead of sentencing. Now, appeals court judges may be asked to consider it.
More: Does Donald Trump have a shot in appealing his hush money conviction?
As his appeal unfolds, Trump may also challenge other rulings Merchan made during the trial, such as allowing the jury to read the transcript of Trump's comments on the infamous "Access Hollywood" tape, when he said celebrities "can do anything," including grab women's genitals. The prosecution described the tape, which was released about a month before the 2016 election, as crucial context for the hush money payment to Daniels, which they said violated federal campaign finance laws.
"Stormy Daniels was a walking, talking reminder that the defendant was not only words," prosecutor Joshua Steinglass said in his closing argument. "She would have totally undermined his strategy for spinning away the Access Hollywood tape."
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Trump appeals New York criminal hush money conviction: What to expect