President Donald Trump survived the most politically motivated prosecution in American history.
But he's not letting it go quietly.
And Donald Trump filed one explosive appeal that has Alvin Bragg on the ropes.
President Trump's legal team dropped a bombshell late Monday night that should have Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg scrambling for cover.¹
The 111-page appeal filed with New York's Appellate Division pulls no punches about what happened in Bragg's courtroom.
"This is the most politically charged prosecution in our Nation's history," Trump's lawyers declared.²
They're calling for the complete reversal of Trump's conviction on all 34 counts and demanding the case be dismissed entirely.
The filing represents Trump's first comprehensive legal counterattack since that May 2025 guilty verdict that made him the first president ever convicted of a felony.³
Trump assembled a legal dream team from Sullivan & Cromwell, led by powerhouse attorney Robert J. Giuffra Jr., to dismantle Bragg's manufactured case piece by piece.
"President Trump's legal team filed a powerhouse appeal in the Manhattan DA's Witch Hunt," a spokesman for Trump's legal team said.⁴
The case currently sits frozen until 2029, but Trump isn't waiting around to clear his name.
His lawyers systematically expose how Bragg "concocted a purported felony by stacking time-barred misdemeanors under a convoluted legal theory."⁵
Here's the scheme that should outrage every American: Bragg took expired misdemeanor charges that couldn't be prosecuted anymore and magically transformed them into felonies using a legal theory that's never been tested in New York courts.
The Supreme Court's landmark immunity ruling last July created what Trump's lawyers call a fatal flaw in the entire prosecution.⁶
Federal law establishes that presidents enjoy absolute immunity from criminal prosecution for official acts performed while in office.
But Judge Juan Merchan allowed prosecutors to parade evidence about Trump's official presidential conduct right in front of the jury.
"The trial was fatally marred by the introduction of official Presidential acts that the Supreme Court has made clear cannot be used as evidence against a President," Trump's lawyers argue.⁷
The prosecution wheeled out testimony about Trump's discussions with his White House communications director in the Oval Office about responding to allegations.
They dragged in evidence about the president's official statements on social media.
Prosecutors even questioned Trump about his discussions with the Attorney General regarding federal campaign regulations.⁸
Every single one of those topics involves the core constitutional authority of the presidency.
Trump's team points out that the Supreme Court mandated automatic reversal of any conviction tainted by evidence of official presidential acts.⁹
There's no harmless error analysis allowed when prosecutors violate presidential immunity.
The Manhattan DA's office repeatedly relied on this prohibited testimony and called it "devastating" during their closing arguments.¹⁰
The appeal exposes how Merchan destroyed basic due process by giving the jury instructions that would make any first-year law student cringe.
Merchan told jurors they could convict Trump of conspiring to influence an election through "unlawful means" without ever agreeing on what those unlawful means actually were.¹¹
Think about that for a second.
Some jurors could believe Trump violated federal campaign finance law.
Others could think he helped people commit tax fraud.
Still others might believe he conspired to make false statements to a bank.
As long as they all agreed Trump did something unlawful, they could convict even though they disagreed on what crime he supposedly committed.
"Due process and Section 17-152 do not permit a conviction based on such a haphazard 'combination of jury findings,'" Trump's lawyers argue.¹²
That's not how criminal trials work in America.
A jury must unanimously agree on every element of the crime, including exactly which "unlawful means" the defendant used.
Merchan's instructions violated centuries of established law requiring jury unanimity.
Trump's attorneys also demolished the prosecution's claim that Trump had "intent to defraud" as required by New York's business records statute.¹³
The lawyers note there was "zero evidence" Trump intended to deprive anyone of money or property, and nobody was actually deprived of anything.
Bragg's office scrambled to argue that "intent to defraud" could mean intent to interfere with unspecified government regulators or intent to deceive "the voting public."
But they never proved Trump acted with either intention.
The appeal hammers Judge Merchan for refusing to recuse himself despite glaring conflicts of interest that should have disqualified him immediately.
Merchan made political contributions to Joe Biden's campaign and to a group literally called "Stop Republicans PAC."¹⁴
But the real scandal involves Merchan's daughter Loren, who serves as president and part-owner of Authentic Campaigns, a Democratic advertising company.
The Kamala Harris campaign paid Authentic Campaigns millions of dollars during the 2024 election.¹⁵
Other Democrat clients paid the firm millions more.
Here's where it gets truly corrupt: those Democrat campaigns ran advertisements specifically invoking the Manhattan prosecution of Trump that was happening in Loren Merchan's father's courtroom.¹⁶
House Judiciary Chairman Jim Jordan investigated and discovered Authentic Campaigns raked in over $93 million from Democrat clients who were fundraising off Trump's prosecution.¹⁷
"In the face of all these undisputed and damaging facts, Justice Merchan's refusal to recuse created, at the very least, 'the appearance of bias,' which 'erode(s) public confidence in the judicial system,'" Trump's lawyers stated.¹⁸
New York law requires judges to recuse when someone within the sixth degree of relation has an interest in the proceeding.¹⁹
Merchan's own daughter was literally profiting from the case her father was overseeing.
That's not an appearance of bias, that's actual financial conflict of interest.
Trump's attorneys conclude with a devastating summary of what actually happened in Manhattan: "Despite years of rifling through President Trump's business, DANY could not find a felony charge. So it concocted an elaborate theory that has never before been pursued in this State and is plainly preempted by federal law."²⁰
The American justice system requires fair trials before properly instructed juries and neutral judges.
Trump got none of that in Alvin Bragg's kangaroo court.
¹ Brooke Singman, "Trump files 'powerhouse' appeal in 'politically charged' Manhattan district attorney case," Fox News, October 28, 2025.
⁶ Amy Howe, "Justices rule Trump has some immunity from prosecution," SCOTUSblog, July 1, 2024.
⁷ Brooke Singman, "Trump files 'powerhouse' appeal in 'politically charged' Manhattan district attorney case," Fox News, October 28, 2025.
¹⁴ Brooke Singman, "Judge Merchan sued for financial disclosures amid concerns of daughter's Democrat work," Fox News, September 5, 2024.
¹⁵ Brooke Singman, "Trump files 'powerhouse' appeal in 'politically charged' Manhattan district attorney case," Fox News, October 28, 2025.
¹⁶ Ibid.
¹⁷ Alex Swoyer, "Loren Merchan, Justice Juan Merchan's daughter, targeted by GOP in conflict of interest probe," Washington Times, August 2, 2024.
¹⁸ Brooke Singman, "Trump files 'powerhouse' appeal in 'politically charged' Manhattan district attorney case," Fox News, October 28, 2025.
¹⁹ Alex Swoyer, "Loren Merchan, Justice Juan Merchan's daughter, targeted by GOP in conflict of interest probe," Washington Times, August 2, 2024.