Liberal Law Professor Denounces ‘Fundamental Defect’ in Bragg’s Prosecution of Trump for Hush Money Payments

A liberal law professor, Jed Shugerman, who twice supported impeaching President Trump, is asking a New York state appellate court to reverse the president’s convictions for hush money payments to the adult film star Stormy Daniels. His intervention could be a sign that the 47th president could prosper on appeal against District Attorney Alvin Bragg.Mr. Shugerman’s argument comes in the form of an amicus brief filed in September to the New York Supreme Court Appellate Division, First Department. In January, The New York Sun reported exclusively that Mr. Shugerman had petitioned the court for permission — courts do not have to accept amicus brief— to submit his, which has been lodged in a sealed docket to all but the parties to the case. The brief was formally filed in September, and bears a red stamp with that month at its top.Mr. Shugerman told the Sun in January that the “sooner this case gets overturned the better.” He calls the convictions a “terrible precedent” and hopes that a reversal on appeal can yield a “deescalation” of lawfare. Mr. Shugerman has written that Mr. Bragg’s pursuit of Mr. Trump is best understood “as a cautionary tale about broader prosecutorial abuses in America.” His brief contends that Mr. Bragg’s trespass on the prerogatives of federal law amounts to a “fundamental defect” that “alone requires reversal of the conviction.”Mr. Trump, who maintains his innocence and decries the prosecution and verdict as politically motivated, has a deadline of Friday for his own brief arguing for reversal. The Appellate Division, First Department has not yet set a date for oral arguments. The convictions against Mr. Trump, which were brought in by a Manhattan jury in March 2024, stemmed from $130,000 in payments he made to Ms. Daniels through his then-lawyer Michael Cohen. Manhattan’s district attorney, Alvin Bragg, argued that those payments, which were disguised as legal fees, amounted to falsification of business records. Mr. Bragg then persuaded that those falsifications were made in the service of a second crime.The presiding judge, Juan Merchan, ruled that the jury need not agree on every element of the second crime, only that one was committed. The presence of a second crime — election interference — was enough to elevate the misdemeanor convictions into felonies. Mr. Trump appealed to the Supreme Court to delay his sentencing until 2029, but the justices abstained from intervening. Judge Merchan sentenced him to an “unconditional discharge,” meaning no further punishment was ordered.In October 2025 Mr. Trump filed his 96-page appeals brief of those convictions, arguing that Judge Merchan’s jury instructions were unlawful and, more extensively, that he ignored the protection owed to Mr. Trump by dint of presidential immunity. In the summer of 2024 the Supreme Court ruled in Trump v. United States that official presidential actions are presumptively immune from prosecution. Mr. Trump has also argued, unsuccessfully, that his case belongs in federal rather than state court.Mr. Shugerman’s argument for reversing Mr. Trump’s convictions centers on his contention that because the prosecution touched on the presidential election, it was properly handled by federal prosecutors, not state ones. The rub, though, is that the Department of Justice passed on such a prosecution — as did Mr. Bragg’s predecessor as district attorney, Cyrus Vance Jr. Cohen was federally prosecuted for his role in the affair, though he ultimately pleaded guilty. He and Mr. Trump have reconciled. Mr. Shugerman contends that because Mr. Bragg’s prosecution alleges election interference, it infringes on the Constitution’s Supremacy Clause, which ordains that federal law, along with the Constitution itself and ratified treaties, “shall be the supreme Law of the Land; and the Judges in every State shall be bound thereby, any thing in the Constitution or Laws of any State to the Contrary notwithstanding.” Mr. Shugerman argues that once “state election law suddenly became the only ‘other crime,’ the sole avenue to reach the felony conviction,” Mr. Bragg was guilty of violating what the law calls “preemption,” a somewhat complex doctrine that means that Congress intended federal law to completely govern. Here, Mr. Shugerman cites “a clear desire to increase federal authority over federal elections and to preempt state law.” Mr. Bragg’s state criminal case has no place in the pursuit of justice, he concludes.

Liberal Law Professor Denounces ‘Fundamental Defect’ in Bragg’s Prosecution of Trump for Hush Money Payments

Liberal Law Professor Denounces ‘Fundamental Defect’ in Bragg’s Prosecution of Trump for Hush Money Payments

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