Former US President and 2024 Republican Presidential hopeful Donald Trump gestures about weight lifting as he speaks at a Republican volunteer recruitment event at Fervent, a Calvary Chapel, in Las Vegas, Nevada, July 8, 2023.
Mario Tama | Getty Images
Former President Donald Trump on Wednesday lost a bid to transfer to New York federal court his state court case related to a hush money payment to porn star Stormy Daniels.
The federal judge’s decision denying that effort keeps Trump on track to go to trial on March 25 in Manhattan Supreme Court in the case.
Trump was indicted in March on 34 felony counts of falsifying business records.
Those records mischaracterized the reason for payments Trump and his company, the Trump Organization, made to his then-personal attorney Michael Cohen.
Trump had characterized the money as being for legal services when it fact it was to reimburse Cohen for a $130,000 payment he made to Daniels shortly before the 2016 presidential election.
Cohen paid Daniels to keep her quiet about her claim of having had sex with Trump a decade earlier, months after Melania Trump had given birth to their son Barron Trump. The former president denies having sex with Daniels.
Trump has pleaded not guilty in the case.
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