FIRST ON THE DAILY SIGNAL–Almost two years after a Democrat-elected prosecutor secured a conviction against then-candidate Donald Trump, a New York appeals court could decide soon on the appeal of the Manhattan felony conviction.

“There is no upside for the courts to string this along. So, we could see a ruling soon,” said Dan Backer, counsel for the watchdog group Coolidge Reagan Foundation, who co-wrote an amicus brief filed Monday and first shared with The Daily Signal.

The brief, filed in the First Department Appellate Division of the New York Supreme Court, calls for reversal of Trump’s conviction. 

Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg, an elected Democrat, secured a 34-felony count indictment against Trump, alleging that he falsified business records regarding supposed hush money payments to former porn star Stormy Daniels, whose real name is Stephanie Gregory Clifford. 

Bragg’s team argued that Trump’s hush money payment subverted the 2016 election, and was effectively a campaign finance violation that Trump covered up. The Coolidge Reagan Foundation contends that state prosecutors cannot enforce federal campaign finance laws under the Federal Election Campaign Act.

The Bragg conviction in May 2024 occurred after Trump had effectively secured the Republican nomination. This gave Democrats the long-desired talking point of referring to Trump as a “convicted felon,” a label that eluded Democrats in the deluge of other anti-Trump lawfare from Democrat prosecutors at the federal and state level.

“The appeals court could say, ‘If 12 jurors want this conviction, we don’t care about the rule of law,’” Backer told The Daily Signal. “Or the judges could decide they don’t want to be overruled by a higher court.”

The filing primarily argues that Bragg attempted to criminalize conduct he has no jurisdiction over, while relying on a theory that contradicts federal election law.

Backer said the amicus brief brings up unique issues “buried in the massive pleadings” in the appeal.

The brief further contends that New York election law applies only to elections for state and local public offices, not the presidential race. The brief argues that the Federal Election Campaign Act prohibits state prosecutions. 

“States are expressly prohibited from prosecuting FECA cases,” Becker noted. “Congress determined that states cannot prosecute for federal campaign finance law. There is a reason low-ranking yahoos like Alvin Bragg aren’t supposed to prosecute these cases. … The FEC looked at this and found no violation. The [Merrick] Garland DOJ could have acted on this with or without the FEC, and didn’t. No federal prosecutor was willing to take this up.”

He continued, “The entire case was built on the legal theory of ‘Orange Man Bad.’”

Trump formally appealed his conviction in October, claiming that Judge Juan Merchan should have recused himself in the case due to his ties to Democrats.

Ahead of Trump’s second term, the Supreme Court ruled the sentencing could move forward. Because of Trump’s November 2024 victory, Judge Merchan determined unconditional discharge was the best option for the case, meaning that Trump would not face jail time or fines. However, Trump filed the appeal to clear his name. 

The Manhattan District Attorney’s Office did not respond to phone or email inquiries from The Daily Signal for this story. 

After the conviction, Bragg cast the ruling as upholding the law in the tradition of prosecuting white collar crimes. 

“The 12 every-day jurors vowed to make a decision based on the evidence and the law—and the evidence and the law alone,” Bragg said in a statement after the May 2024 conviction. “Their deliberations led them to a unanimous conclusion, beyond a reasonable doubt: That the defendant, Donald J. Trump, is guilty of 34 counts of falsifying business records in the first degree, to conceal a scheme to corrupt the 2016 election.”

The post EXCLUSIVE: How Trump’s ‘Convicted Felon’ Label Could Soon Vanish appeared first on The Daily Signal.