President Trump’s attempt to move to federal court his appeal of his conviction — on 34 felony counts — for falsifying business records, which is due to be heard by the Second United States Appeals Circuit on Wednesday, could offer the president the opportunity to overturn his only criminal conviction. 

The climate has changed from a year ago, when Mr. Trump’s lead defense attorney, Todd Blanche (now deputy attorney general), had to resign from his law firm, Cadwalader, Wickersham & Taft, in order to represent Mr. Trump. The president is now represented by a veteran of more than two dozen Supreme Court arguments, Jeff Wall. 

The partner at Sullivan & Cromwell, a Big Law giant, will attempt to persuade the appellate tribunal that the verdicts pronounced by a Manhattan jury at the behest of District Attorney Alvin Bragg in the case of People of the State of New York v. Trump ought to be heard by the federal bench. 

Mr. Trump was convicted in state court by a state jury presided over by a state judge, Juan Merchan, who Mr. Trump repeatedly claimed was biased against him and sought, unsuccessfully, to get him to recuse himself. Mr. Trump has also twice attempted to remove the case to federal court — once before the trial began and once after he was sentenced. 

Judge Alvin Hellerstein of the Southern District of New York twice denied those motions, reasoning that the allegations concern “private, unofficial acts, outside the bounds of executive authority.”

Now, though, Mr. Trump turns to the Supreme Court’s ruling in Trump v. United States that presidents are presumptively immune when performing their official actions. This means, he argues, that his appeal of what Mr. Bragg calls the “catch-and-kill scheme” belongs in federal court. He wants the Second Circuit to repudiate Judge Hellerstein’s finding that “hush money” paid to an adult film star “does not reflect in any way the color of the President’s official duties.” 

Mr. Bragg’s position is that Mr. Trump’s motion to move the case to federal court is moot because the 47th president has already been sentenced by Judge Merchan and “removal is unavailable once final judgment has been entered in the state proceeding.” Removal, the state reasons, is intended to offer the opportunity to mount federal defenses. The window to do so has now passed. 

Mr. Trump’s team contends that the case presents “complex first-impression issues relating to the Supremacy Clause, federal-officer removal, appearances of impropriety and conflicts in connection with an unprecedented and baseless prosecution of the leading candidate in the 2024 Presidential election.” The team cites “hostile local officials” — Mr. Bragg and Judge Merchan among them — as reasons why it belongs in federal court.      

Even if the convictions stand on appeal, Mr. Trump does not have to worry about prison. Judge Merchan,  with whom Mr. Trump repeatedly clashed — calling the jurist “psychotic” and “corrupt” — sentenced him to an unconditional discharge, meaning no further punishment is entailed. Mr. Trump maintains that he is “totally innocent.” 

Judge Merchan, who held Mr. Trump in criminal contempt, donated a small sum of money to a group called Stop Republicans before the 2020 election. His adult daughter, Loren, is a Democratic political operative whose client list includes some of Mr. Trump’s most devoted foes, such as Vice President Harris and Senator Schiff. A New York judicial ethics panel ruled that Judge Merchan had shown poor judgment with his donation, but did not force him to recuse himself. 

Mr. Trump was also enraged by a gag order imposed by the judge that prohibited him from criticizing courtroom personnel; it was later expanded, in order to protect Ms. Merchan, to the judge’s family members. Mr. Trump was fined multiple times and threatened with imprisonment by Judge Merchan.

The path to the guilty verdict began with payments Mr. Trump made, via his then-attorney, Michael Cohen, to the adult film star Stormy Daniels, whose real name is Stephanie Clifford. The payments were transacted in the months before and after Mr. Trump won the 2016 presidential election. Federal prosecutors passed on prosecuting Mr. Trump for these payments or any others, as did — at least initially  —Mr. Bragg.

Ultimately, though, Gotham’s top prosecutor, an elected Democrat, relented and alleged that Mr. Trump, then running to retake the White House, had falsified the payments to Ms. Clifford in the service of an unspecified second crime — possibly tax fraud or campaign finance violations. These legal gymnastics were necessary to elevate the charges to the lowest level of felony from misdemeanors, which would preserve the possibility of a jail sentence and cement Mr. Trump’s status as a convicted felon.

Mr. Trump’s lawyers argued that Mr. Cohen was an unreliable witness and that their client, unaware of any unlawful scheme, was merely signing checks as part of a retainer agreement. Ms. Clifford maintains that she and Mr. Trump had sex at a celebrity golf tournament in 2006 in Lake Tahoe, and that the payments were meant to conceal that interaction. Mr. Trump denies ever having sexual relations with her.            

The two attorneys who represented Mr. Trump at trial — Emil Bove and Mr. Blanche — have seen their stars rise, notwithstanding the case’s outcome. Mr. Trump brought both of them to the Department of Justice, and he has now nominated Mr. Bove to sit on the Third United States Appeals Circuit.

The panel of circuit riders who will hear Mr. Trump’s appeal has not yet been announced.