US President Donald Trump speaks before signing the Laken Riley Act in the East Room of the White House in Washington, DC, January 29, 2025. Agence France-Presse

NEW YORK — President Donald Trump has appealed his conviction for covering up hush money payments to a porn star and appointed new lawyers to expunge the first conviction of a former president, his legal team said Wednesday.

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Trump named lawyers from the prestigious firm Sullivan and Cromwell in an effort to overturn the New York jury’s guilty verdict and the sentence passed by the judge in the case on January 10.

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“President Donald J. Trump’s appeal is important for the rule of law, New York’s reputation as a global business, financial and legal center, as well as for the presidency and all public officials,” Trump’s new lawyer Robert Giuffra said in a statement.

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READ: Trump sentenced to ‘unconditional discharge’ in hush money case

“The misuse of the criminal law by the Manhattan (prosecutor) to target President Trump sets a dangerous precedent, and we look forward to the case being dismissed on appeal.”

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New York judge Juan Merchan handed down no jail time or fine, but the discharge upheld the jury’s guilty verdict — and confirmed Trump’s infamy as the first former president convicted of a felony.

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The 34 counts of falsifying business records on which Trump was convicted in May 2024 carried potential jail time.

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READ: US judge spares Trump jail, fine for hush money conviction

The trial saw Trump forced to look on as a string of witnesses testified that he had fraudulently covered up illicit payments to adult film star Stormy Daniels in an effort to stop her disclosing their tryst ahead of the 2016 presidential election, which he ultimately won.

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Trump had sought a suspension of the criminal proceedings after a New York State appeals court dismissed his effort to have the hearing delayed.

But the Supreme Court ruled that the sentencing could proceed.

In a brief legal filing dated Tuesday, Trump’s lawyers state that he “hereby appeals to the First Department of the Appellate Division of the Supreme Court of the State of New York from the judgment of conviction… and sentence rendered.”

No grounds for the appeal were given.

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Trump repeatedly called the prosecution a “witch hunt”k9win, rhetoric prosecutors argued was “designed to have a chilling effect” on the legal cases against him.

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