Trump attorneys slam federal judge for giving 'meritless reasons to wrongly deny' the president what he wanted — 1 day after the jurist died

President Donald Trump's personal attorneys ripped a federal judge in New York over his "erroneous" and "wrong" decisions — one day after the jurist died.

District Judge Alvin Hellerstein died on Wednesday of natural causes at the age of 92. He had been presiding over high-profile cases in the Southern District of New York, including the prosecution of ousted Venezuelan leader Nicolas Maduro and Trump's appeal for his "hush money" case to be moved from state court to federal court.

Hellerstein's rejections of Trump's requests drew fire from the president's personal defense team on Thursday.

"Throughout this litigation, both [the Manhattan District Attorney's Office] and the district court have grasped for different, meritless reasons to wrongly deny President Trump—the chief federal officer—a federal forum to adjudicate his substantial federal defenses," wrote Robert J. Giuffra Jr. in a 43-page filing.

Giuffra argued that Hellerstein and the Manhattan District Attorney's Office's "ever-shifting justifications for keeping this case in state court cannot obscure what has always been clear: the President of the United States may invoke the federal forum that Congress expressly authorized for precisely these extraordinary circumstances. The district court erred in concluding otherwise."

In March 2023, Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg's office indicted Trump on 34 felony counts of falsifying business records in connection with "hush money" payments sent to adult film actress Stormy Daniels. Trump then tried to move the case to federal court, but Hellerstein denied his plea.

The following year, the case went to trial and Trump was convicted on all counts.

Before sentencing, Trump attempted again to get the case sent to federal court, citing the U.S. Supreme Court ruling that presidents hold absolute immunity for core constitutional duties and some immunity for other acts on the fringes of official duties. Hellerstein, again, rejected it, opining that the "hush money" payments were not official conduct.

That November, Trump won reelection and entered the Oval Office for another four-year term in January 2025, but the case was not over. He appealed Hellerstein's second denial to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit. The circuit court sent it back to the judge with new guidance, and 10 months later, Hellerstein once again said no, this time saying the president waited too long.

The president's attorneys attacked Hellerstein's additional reasoning. In pointing to the second rejection, Giuffra wrote: "In erroneously denying removal in September 2024, the district court said nothing about President Trump's supposed delay or any purported waiver of removal."

And then, in the most recent denial, "[T]he district court took another ten months to rule, despite President Trump's repeated letter requests to do so 'promptly,'" the Thursday filing reads. Giuffra also took aim at the judge's timing at another point, writing that the "district court got it wrong again, this time after taking ten months to issue its decision."

Trump was ultimately sentenced to an unconditional discharge, meaning the convictions remain on Trump's record, but he faced no jail time, fines, probation or other similar punishment.

Last week, DA Bragg implored the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit not to transfer Trump's case to federal court.