Lawyers for President Trump appeared before a five-judge panel of the New York Supreme Court's Appellate Division, First Department, on Thursday to argue that his 2024 hush money conviction should be thrown out, in oral arguments that gave each side just 15 minutes to make its case, according to CBS News.

The appeal targets Trump's conviction on 34 felony counts of falsifying business records, handed down by a Manhattan jury in May 2024 over payments made to silence adult film actress Stormy Daniels ahead of the 2016 election. Trump's attorneys argued the trial was "fatally marred" by the admission of evidence they say related to official presidential acts, which they contend the Supreme Court has ruled cannot be used against a sitting or former president. They also argued that trial judge Juan Merchan should have recused himself from the case and that jurors may have convicted without unanimously agreeing on what specific "unlawful means" underpinned the charges.

Prosecutors defend the verdict

Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg's office, representing the prosecution, countered that the conduct at the heart of the case was personal and unofficial, not tied to Trump's presidential duties — a position, prosecutors noted in their written brief, that multiple courts have already endorsed at earlier stages of the litigation. Merchan himself had previously ruled that none of the contested evidence was constitutionally protected and found that Trump's defense failed to preserve several of the arguments it is now raising on appeal.

FATALLY MARRED BY OFFICIAL PRESIDENTIAL ACTS

Thursday's hearing is one of two parallel tracks Trump's legal team is pursuing to unwind the conviction. A separate federal appeal, seeking to move the underlying case into federal court entirely on the theory that it involved official presidential conduct, is scheduled for its own arguments on Nov. 16 before a different appellate panel.

The Appellate Division panel did not rule from the bench and gave no indication of when a decision might come. A reversal would be a significant, if largely symbolic, legal win for Trump, who already received an unconditional discharge at sentencing rather than jail time or probation; prosecutors, for their part, are seeking to preserve what remains the only criminal conviction of a sitting or former U.S. president to date.

Both sides are expected to file any additional briefing the panel requests in the coming weeks, with legal analysts cautioning that appellate decisions on cases of this complexity often take months to issue.