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Judges to hear Trump's appeal of 2024 criminal hush money conviction

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Cite

Charalambous, P., & Katersky, A. (2026, November 5). Judges to hear Trump's appeal of 2024 criminal hush money conviction. ABC News (US). https://abcnews.com/US/judges-hear-trumps-appeal-2024-criminal-hush-money/story?id=137859786

Dated from the outlet's own feed. Check the original for its byline.

ABC News (US) · collected 2026-11-05 · by Peter Charalambous, Aaron Katersky

Quick Summary

Donald Trump's attorneys are set to appear before a five-judge panel in Manhattan to appeal his 2024 conviction on 34 felony counts related to hush money payments. The case centers around a $130,000 payment made to Stormy Daniels through Trump’s lawyer to keep her quiet about an alleged affair prior to the 2016 election. Trump's legal team argues that the charges were politically motivated and improperly brought against him.
Written by AI on 2026-11-05, from this article's own text only (the story summary below draws on all the coverage).

AI analysis

Story summary

On November 5, 2026, Donald Trump's legal team is set to appear before a Manhattan appeals court to challenge the former president's conviction of 34 felony counts for falsifying business records. The case stems from a $130,000 payment made by his lawyer Michael Cohen to adult film actress Stormy Daniels, aimed at silencing her during the 2016 presidential election. Despite being convicted in May 2024, Trump returned to the White House and has since been seeking ways to overturn this conviction through various legal channels.

Lawyers for Trump argue that the charges were politically motivated due to "immense political pressure" on the Democratic prosecutor Alvin Bragg at the time of the election. They assert in court filings that the case is unprecedented and politically charged, emphasizing that it should never have been brought. The appeal hearing will take place before a five-judge panel from New York's Appellate Division, First Department, where Trump’s attorneys will contend that his conviction was wrongful.

Written for “Trump's Appeal in Hush Money Case” on 2026-11-05, grounded in this article and the 2 other(s) covering the same event.
Why this leaning score
The model judged this article politically coded and scored it -0.35, but 2 quote(s) could not be found in the article and the other 1 are attributed speech rather than the article's own narration, so the score is not published.
Written under an earlier scoring contract, which gave a paragraph rather than checkable quotes. Re-analysing this article replaces it.
Leaning score withheld for article 131222: no verified evidence · logged 2026-11-05

Story

📰 Trump's Appeal in Hush Money Case
Politics · 3 article(s) covering the same event. See how they differ ↓

Compared with similar articles

This article reads unscored and hedges 5% of its claims. Each row says how that neighbour differs.
The Independent
⚖️ Leans right Hedges 2 of 28 claims Outlet record 59/100
CBS News
Hedges 3 of 17 claims Outlet record 65/100
How this article was measured signals, leaning charts, publisher record, byline, topics and claims

Signals How these are calculated →

Claims extracted
19
sentences that state something as happening or true
Uncertain
5%
1 of 19 hedged ("reportedly", "may", "according to")
Leaning
withheld
no quote in the article backed the model's score
Publisher signals
67/100
ABC News (US)'s corrections and hedging, across everything collected from it. Not a measure of accuracy.
Outlets on this story
3
Politics
Same framing elsewhere
1
articles that frame the event the way this one does
Analyzed 2026-11-05 · how these are computed

How this is being covered How these are calculated →

Article leaning vs. publisher reliability
Source leaning vs. consistency

Publisher

ABC News (US) · 1390 article(s) · 4 correction(s) detected
Running correction rate · 4 correction(s)

Who wrote this

Peter Charalambous
19 article(s) here · 1 carrying a prediction
🔮 Two and a half years after a New York jury convicted Donald Trump of 34 felony counts, lawyers for the president are set to appear in a Manhattan courtroom to argue the case be overturned.
🔮 Attorneys for former FBI Director James Comey are set to appear in court in Washington, D.C., Friday in their emergency push to have a federal judge dismiss the criminal allegations lodged against him by the Justice Department that accuse him of allegedly mishandling classified information more than a decade ago.
🔮 "The Court believes that given the notoriety of doxing related to this case, it would serve all parties' interests to work together to ensure their clients and others may be safeguarded, to the extent possible, from being inundated with threats or harassment from malicious outside actors," she wrote.
🔮 Faculty senators inside the room on Wednesday described a "heated debate" over the resolution, though the bulk of speakers appeared in favor of the resolution. Ortiz argued that "many students do not come forward because they understand that their ordeals will not be treated seriously by Cornell," and urged his fellow faculty senators to hold the school's leadership responsible. "
🔮 Attorneys for Diego Sarabia on Monday asked for "narrowly tailored restrictions" that would prevent lawyers and parties in the civil case from commenting on the allegations outside of court.
2026-10-13 · assertive framing · Accused Cornell University student asks for gag order
🔮 If there had been continued sexual activity, contact by these individuals, that would be a crime.
🔮 "I will not comment on a Facebook post," she told reporters.
🔮 "I was prostituted, and I was held up like bait for a gaggle of men, and I didn't even know it was happening," Jane Doe testified via teleconference on May 29, 2025, regarding allegations that she had been raped by 8-10 fraternity brothers.
🔮 The investigator subsequently appeared to question how the fraternity members could possibly know the encounters were consensual.
🔮 Some of the fraternity brothers later accused of sexual assault at Cornell University attempted to contain the allegations in the weeks following the incident, apparently worried about what would happen to their own reputations and futures on campus, according to text messages, phone calls, and other records reviewed by ABC News.
Also by Peter Charalambous
Nothing else under this byline is closely related to this article, so these are simply their most recent.
All 19 articles by Peter Charalambous →
Aaron Katersky
23 article(s) here · 1 carrying a prediction
🔮 Two and a half years after a New York jury convicted Donald Trump of 34 felony counts, lawyers for the president are set to appear in a Manhattan courtroom to argue the case be overturned.
🔮 Knox argued that a gag order would limit "possible juror prejudice" and prevent the potential release of sensitive information that could lead to " threats, doxing, intimidation, and extrajudicial contact." Judge Phaedra Perry-Bond called the request a "side show" that's "meant to muddy the waters and distract from the merits of the claims and defenses involved in this case." New York Attorney General Letitia James, who was appointed special prosecutor by Gov. Kathy Hochul, is conducting an investigation into the incident.
🔮 Attorneys for Diego Sarabia on Monday asked for "narrowly tailored restrictions" that would prevent lawyers and parties in the civil case from commenting on the allegations outside of court.
2026-10-13 · assertive framing · Accused Cornell University student asks for gag order
🔮 Luigi Mangione should be tried in state court because it would hold him accountable for a different kind of "harm or evil" than his guilty plea in federal court, the Manhattan district attorney's office argued Friday in a new court filing.
🔮 "They will now answer for their crimes."
🔮 If there had been continued sexual activity, contact by these individuals, that would be a crime.
🔮 "I was prostituted, and I was held up like bait for a gaggle of men, and I didn't even know it was happening," Jane Doe testified via teleconference on May 29, 2025, regarding allegations that she had been raped by 8-10 fraternity brothers.
🔮 The investigator subsequently appeared to question how the fraternity members could possibly know the encounters were consensual.
🔮 Some of the fraternity brothers later accused of sexual assault at Cornell University attempted to contain the allegations in the weeks following the incident, apparently worried about what would happen to their own reputations and futures on campus, according to text messages, phone calls, and other records reviewed by ABC News.
🔮 Instead, Northrup wrote that the investigator at the district attorney's office "informed me that he and several Attorney's at the District Attorney's Office had read [Jane Doe's] statement" and "stated that they all agreed that, based on [her] statement, criminal charges would not be pursued in this case.
Also by Aaron Katersky
Nothing else under this byline is closely related to this article, so these are simply their most recent.
All 23 articles by Aaron Katersky →

Topics

Democrat Manhattan New York Republican Sullivan & Cromwell

Subjects

Trump PERSON · 16× New York GPE · 4× Manhattan GPE · 3× Republican NORP · 2× Appellate Division ORG · 1× Democrat NORP · 1× Donald Trump PERSON · 1× Sullivan & Cromwell ORG · 1× U.S. GPE · 1× the First Department of the State Supreme Court's ORG · 1×

Narrative

For six weeks that spring, Trump -- then the presumptive Republican nominee -- was effectively stuck in a Manhattan courtroom as prosecutors alleged a scheme to conceal a $130,000 hush money payment from his former lawyer to adult film actress Stormy Daniels ahead of the 2016 presidential election.
framing: assertive · carried by 1 article(s) · first seen 2026-11-05
🔮 Two and a half years after a New York jury convicted Donald Trump of 34 felony counts, lawyers for the president are set to appear in a Manhattan courtroom to argue the case be overturned.
2026-11-05 · ABC News (US)
Judges to hear Trump's appeal of 2024 criminal hush money conviction · assertive framing

Claims (19 extracted, 1 hedged)

Judges to hear Trump's appeal of 2024 criminal hush money conviction asserted
Judges → hear → conviction
Trump's attorneys are seeking to get the conviction reversed. asserted
conviction → seek → ?
Two and a half years after a New York jury convicted Donald Trump of 34 felony counts, lawyers for the president are set to appear in a Manhattan courtroom to argue the case be overturned. asserted
case → convict → courtroom
Trump's attorneys at the white shoe law firm Sullivan & Cromwell argue the case is the "most politically charged prosecution in our Nation's history" and should be reversed. asserted
case → argue → history
"The DA, a Democrat, brought those charges in the middle of a contentious Presidential election in which President Trump was the leading Republican candidate. asserted
Trump → bring → which
These charges against President Trump were as unprecedented as their political context," Trump's lawyers wrote in a filing at the First Department of the State Supreme Court's Appellate Division. asserted
lawyers → write → Division
On Thursday, they'll have to convince a majority of a five-judge panel that Trump was wrongfully convicted to spare him the distinction of being the only U.S. president in history to be convicted of a crime. asserted
Trump → have → crime
The oral argument will relitigate one of the central elements of Trump's presidential comeback in 2024. asserted
argument → relitigate → 2024
For six weeks that spring, Trump -- then the presumptive Republican nominee -- was effectively stuck in a Manhattan courtroom as prosecutors alleged a scheme to conceal a $130,000 hush money payment from his former lawyer to adult film actress Stormy Daniels ahead of the 2016 presidential election. asserted
prosecutors → stick → election
A jury convicted Trump on 34 criminal counts of falsifying bushes records in the first degree -- one for each of the payments Trump made to reimburse his lawyer, which prosecutors say were falsified to conceal their true purpose. asserted
prosecutors → convict → purpose
After Trump won the 2024 presidential election, he was sentenced to an unconditional discharge -- due to the extraordinary circumstances of him being days away from his inauguration -- and later made his lead defense attorney from that trial, Todd Blanche, the attorney general of the United States. asserted
him → win → States
It was done to damage my reputation so that I'd lose the election, and obviously that didn't work," Trump said during his sentencing. asserted
Trump → do → sentencing
Trump's attorneys have made a series of arguments to appeal the conviction, including alleging that the judge should have recused himself and that part of the trial should have been protected by presidential immunity. asserted
part → make → immunity
They also argue that prosecutors abused New York law to target Trump. asserted
prosecutors → argue → Trump
"Targeting alleged conduct that has never been found to violate any New York law, the DA concocted a purported felony by stacking time-barred misdemeanors under a convoluted legal theory, which the DA then improperly obscured until the charge conference. asserted
DA → target → conference
This case should never have seen the inside of a courtroom, let alone resulted in a conviction," the appeal said. asserted
appeal → see → conviction
Lawyers for the Manhattan district attorney argue that Trump was convicted of a crime regularly prosecuted in New York, and that presidential immunity has no place covering the alleged conduct. asserted
immunity → argue → conduct
"The criminal charges here arose from defendant's unofficial, nonpresidential conduct -- as multiple courts have already found, and defendant now concedes. asserted
defendant → arise → conduct
Defendant complains that the immunity doctrine was violated because the People introduced evidence of official acts during the trial, but he is wrong," the district attorney's filing said, noting that "a mountain of evidence unaffected by any claim of official presidential immunity overwhelmingly established defendant's guilt." uncertain
mountain → complain → guilt
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