In the criminal indictment filed by Democratic Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg against former President Donald Trump, a motion was filed that sought to have the case removed to the federal court system from New York's state court system.

A federal judge just ruled against Trump's motion and remanded the case back to the state level in a decision that is clearly a loss for the former president and a victory for DA Bragg, the New York Daily News reported.

The charges against Trump

Former President Trump is facing a criminal trial in a Manhattan court in March 2024 on multiple misdemeanor charges of falsification of business records that DA Bragg elevated to felonies on the allegation that they were committed in furtherance of some other unspecified crime.

He was indicted in April on 34 counts of Falsification of Business Records in the First Degree, to which he has pleaded not guilty, that is in relation to his reimbursement of then-personal attorney Michael Cohen for a $130,000 "hush money" payment in October 2016 to porn actress Stormy Daniels, real name Stephanie Clifford, to buy her silence about an alleged affair with Trump years earlier.

According to Bragg, the monthly payments from Trump to Cohen over the course of 2017, while Trump was the sitting president, were improperly denoted and disguised as payments for legal services instead of reimbursement for Cohen's initial payment to Clifford.

Trump's arguments for removal to federal court

The Daily News reported that in his motion to have the case removed to federal court, former President Trump argued that DA Bragg couldn't charge him in state court since the alleged crimes occurred while he was the sitting president, as well as that he was generally immune from state-level prosecution in relation to his role as president.

He further asserted that the state-level charges, which are premised on the allegation that Cohen's payment to Clifford improperly influenced the 2016 election, were preempted by federal election laws, as well as that DA Bragg was biased and "politically motivated" to bring charges against him, per Politico.

In making those arguments, Trump cited 28 U.S.C. Sec. 1442(a)(1), which allows for civil or criminal actions at the state level to be removed to federal court if it involves "any officer ... of the United States ... for or relating to any act under color of such office."

The judge's ruling

U.S. District Judge Alvin Hellerstein wasn't buying any of those arguments for why the state-level case should be removed to federal court and knocked each of them down one by one in the 25-page ruling he issued Wednesday which determined that Sec. 1442(a)(1) had been "improperly invoked" by the former president.

With regard to Trump's claim that the payments made in 2017 while he was president were made "under color of such office," Hellerstein wrote, "The evidence overwhelmingly suggests that the matter was a purely a personal item of the President -- a cover-up of an embarrassing event. 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."

Reimbursing Cohen for advancing hush money to Stephanie Clifford cannot be considered the performance of a constitutional duty. Falsifying business records to hide such reimbursement, and to transform the reimbursement into a business expense for Trump and income to Cohen, likewise does not relate to a presidential duty," he continued later in the ruling. "Trump is not immune from the People's prosecution in New York Supreme Court. His argument of immunity is not a colorable defense."

Likewise, in response to the federal preemption argument, Hellerstein wrote, "The mere fact that Trump is alleged to have engaged in fraudulent conduct with respect to a federal election is not a basis for preemption. There is no colorable basis to support a federal preemption defense."

As for the claim the indictment was "politically motivated" and evidence of "state hostility" against him, the judge declared that "there is no reason to believe that the New York judicial system would not be fair and give Trump equal justice under the law. Trump fails to make a case of protective jurisdiction."

"Trump has failed to show that the conduct charged by the Indictment is for or relating to any act performed by or for the President under color of the official acts of a President. Trump also has failed to show that he has a colorable federal defense to the Indictment," Hellerstein concluded. "For either or both of these reasons, the People's motion to remand the case is granted. The Clerk shall remand the case file to the New York Supreme Court, New York County."