Stormy Daniels Trial Trashed by Trump Attorneys in New Filing: ‘Zombie Case’

Donald Trump’s Stormy Daniels trial is a “zombie case” that should have been dismissed a long time ago, the former president’s attorneys have told a federal judge.

The attorneys are seeking to have Trump’s hush money sentencing transferred from New York Superior Court to a federal judge.

“This ‘zombie’ case should have been dismissed long ago,” they wrote in a filing on Thursday.

Trump, the Republican presidential nominee, faced trial in New York City on 34 counts of falsifying business records for hush money payments made to former adult film actor Stormy Daniels.

On May 30, a jury convicted him on all 34 counts.

Newsweek sought email comment from Trump’s attorney on Friday.

The zombie reference comes from a 2023 book by former Manhattan prosecutor Mark Pomerantz called People vs. Donald Trump.

According to Pomerantz’s book, the hush money investigation was known as a “zombie case” because it was dead but kept on going.

He wrote that the facts surrounding Trump’s payments to Stormy Daniels “did not amount to much in legal terms. Paying hush money is not a crime under New York State law.”

In their filing, Trump’s lawyers reference a legal case in which Pomerantz was compelled to appear before a Congressional hearing to explain his observations.

Their argument to transfer the sentencing to federal court rests heavily on the Supreme Court’s July 1 ruling on presidential immunity, which gave Trump wide protection from prosecution.

Judge Juan Merchan delayed the sentencing from July to September so that he could consider the impact of the Supreme Court’s presidential immunity decision.

Trump’s lawyers argue in their filing that large parts of evidence in the trial evidence should never have been included because it violated presidential immunity.

“The Manhattan District Attorney’s Office (DANY) violated the Presidential immunity doctrine in grand jury proceedings, and again at trial, by relying on evidence of President Trump’s official acts during his first term in Office,” the filing states.

“The U.S. Supreme Court recently ruled that these types of violations threaten the structure of the federal government and the ability of future Presidents to carry out their vital duties in the way the Framers intended.”

“DANY’s flawed case is also preempted because their Indictment turned on the improper use of state law to try to retroactively police the 2016 Presidential election,” they add.

They are making their transfer petition to Judge Alvin K. Hellerstein.

In 2023, Hellerstein rejected an attempt to have the case transferred to federal court before the trial began.

He also strongly rejected a claim that the “embarrassing” details of the case had anything to do with Trump’s presidential duties.

“The evidence overwhelmingly suggests that the matter was a purely personal item of the president — a cover-up of an embarrassing event,” he wrote in his 2023 ruling.”

“Hush money paid to an adult film star is not related to a president’s official acts. It does not reflect in any way the color of the president’s official duties.”