NEW YORK (AP) — President Donald Trump's lawyers are trying to persuade a New York appeals court on Thursday to throw out his hush money conviction, two years after it made history.
The conviction, on 34 felony counts of falsifying business records to obscure a $130,000 payment to adult film performer Stormy Daniels, continues to nettle Trump enough that he denounced it on social media as recently as September. The president denies any wrongdoing, and he has turned to state and federal courts in hopes of unwinding the verdict.
He didn't attend Thursday's court session, where a panel of five appellate judges peppered prosecutors and his lawyer with questions — particularly about the defense's argument that prosecutors' legal theory was built on a shaky combination of alleged state and federal offenses.
The Manhattan district attorney's office says the hush money was meant to keep unflattering information about Trump away from the electorate before the 2016 vote, and that it amounted to an illegal campaign contribution under the Federal Election Campaign Act. Trump lawyer Robert Giuffra Jr. told the judges that state prosecutors have no place tying a case to a federal election law.
“We think it’s the most obvious ground for reversal,” he said.
Prosecutors argued otherwise, saying that they weren't prosecuting an alleged federal campaign finance offense, but rather presenting it as a fact that drove what they claim was a conspiracy that led to phony records.
“So are you relying upon FECA in order to prove your falsifying business records (charge)?” Justice Troy Webber asked.
“Only partially," Manhattan Assistant District Attorney Steven Wu replied, adding that it was "important only to show that the purpose for the falsifying business records here was to conceal that conspiracy.”
The appeal also concerns whether jurors should have been allowed to hear testimony about supposed White House conversations, workflow and even Trump social media posts during his first term. His lawyers cite presidential immunity for official acts, and they argue his official conduct included responding to the Daniels drama once it became public in 2018.
“When a president addresses the nation to defend himself from allegations of personal misconduct (as all presidents do), or discusses such communications with his aides, he is carrying out his constitutional duties and is protected by immunity,” Giuffra wrote in a filing this October.
Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg's office counters that the legal theory and jury instructions were legitimate and that the White House-related evidence was fair game. Some was public record, some was a general description of office practices, and the conversations were “unofficial conduct,” prosecutors say.
“A president's discussions about a purely private matter, even with a White House advisor, do not constitute ‘official acts for which the president is immune,’” Wu wrote in a filing in July. Besides, he said, there was “a mountain” of other evidence against Trump.
While the appeal turns on complex legal disputes, political overtones aren’t hard to find. The very first paragraph of one of the Trump team’s court filings contends the case was the flimsy product of “immense political pressure” on a Democratic prosecutor to go after Trump — rhetoric that echoes the Republican president’s own oft-repeated claims in the court of public opinion.
The May 2024 verdict made Trump the first former — and now current — U.S. president with a criminal conviction. While historic, it didn’t impede his return to the White House or subject him to any punishment.
The trial involved $130,000 that Daniels got from Trump's then-fixer and lawyer, Michael Cohen, weeks before the 2016 election. The money bought, for a time, her silence about an alleged sexual encounter with the married Trump a decade earlier. He says that nothing sexual happened between them.
Trump's company reimbursed Cohen in 2017, logging those payments as legal expenses.
Prosecutors argue that he “orchestrated a conspiracy” that violated federal campaign finance laws, among others.
Trump's lawyers argue there’s only “weak” evidence that he even knew about Cohen’s dealings at the time. His trial attorneys also said that payments to Cohen were indeed legal expenses, and that any hush money expended on Trump's behalf wasn't hidden campaign spending, just an effort to avoid embarrassing his family.
The distinction matters because, under New York law, falsifying business records isn't a felony unless it's done with an intent to commit or conceal a separate crime.
While pursuing his state appeal, Trump also has been trying to shift the case to federal court and have it dismissed on immunity grounds. A federal judge said no — for the third time — in August. Trump's attorneys are appealing that decision, with arguments set for Nov. 16.
FILE - Former President Donald Trump waits for the start of proceedings in his trial at Manhattan criminal court, May 13, 2024, in New York. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig, Pool, File)
ASUNCIÓN, Paraguay (AP) — Paraguay’s lower house voted unanimously Thursday to impeach President Santiago Peña just minutes after he announced his resignation, as the collapse of a major digital bank tied to his government froze millions of people’s savings, sent protesters surging into the streets and turned his own party against him.
Peña’s resignation, by video posted to X, would have needed congressional approval. The lower house had already started debating his impeachment when he resigned. Removal from office would require Senate approval.
The 78-0 vote marked a stunning repudiation of Peña by lawmakers from his long-ruling Colorado Party, who joined the opposition in backing his impeachment after three days of demonstrations rocked the capital, Asunción. The vote sends the charges to the Senate, where a two-thirds majority is required to convict the president and formally remove him from office.
The impeachment came as thousands protested for a third day, as they attempt to recoup lost savings, wages and pensions from Ueno Bank, a major digital lender.
Peña, a close ally of U.S. President Donald Trump, announced his decision in a video posted to X as lawmakers debated his impeachment, saying he was stepping down in the interest of “the stability of our country, social peace and the need to preserve our democratic institutions.”
The president, who until last year held a stake in a company related to Ueno Bank, expressed contrition but stopped short of accepting responsibility for the banking crisis that has plunged a South American nation long prized by foreign investors for its stability into financial and political turmoil.
“I also want to apologize to the people if I have failed them at any point,” he said. “It was never my intention to betray the trust they placed in me."
The president of the lower house, Raúl Latorre, announced that both chambers of Congress would meet in a joint session in a few hours to accept or reject Peña’s resignation. Vice President Pedro Alliana was expected to be sworn in as president soon after, with lawmakers scheduled to elect a new vice president an hour later.
Ueno Bank, which exploded from an obscure finance company to a household name in less than five years, claimed more than 60% of Paraguay’s adults as customers. They are now left scrambling to recoup their savings, government pensions, and, for 7,000 employees impacted by the bank's closure, unpaid wages.
Many Paraguayans are left asking how a bank linked to the president, who until last year had a stake in Ueno’s holding company, could grow so rapidly in size and importance despite repeated warnings about its dubious lending practices.
The answer lies in the uncomfortable proximity of Peña’s long-ruling Colorado Party to the country’s regulators and business elite, a weakness that has endured even as steady economic management and rapid growth made Paraguay a darling of international investors in recent years.
“Santiago Peña and the Colorado Party have stolen all our savings,” said Luis Pineda, one of the protesters marching to Congress on Wednesday. “We are fed up with 70 years of plunder.”
Soon after winning its banking license in 2023, Ueno seemed to be everywhere in Paraguay. The digital lender, a rebranded version of a decades-old finance company, lured customers with generous cash-back offers on groceries, grew to more than 70 locations, sponsored Paraguay's national soccer team and plastered its name on the country's main stadium.
Government money poured into Ueno’s coffers under Peña. He also appointed Carlos Carvallo, president of Financiera Ueno, the predecessor to Ueno Bank, to run the central bank, the agency charged with supervising the digital lender.
As of last month, Ueno reported holding roughly $800 million in public deposits, about a quarter of its total, including money from the state pension and health fund and the operators of Paraguay’s giant hydroelectric dams.
Even as retirees’ savings and other public money piled up at Ueno, worries were escalating inside the central bank. In June, its inspectors found a pattern of risky lending to insiders, reported ABC Color, a leading Paraguayan newspaper. Ueno had extended large sums to companies tied to its owners, beyond what the law allows and without enough collateral to cover the debts if they went bad. On a single day in September 2025, nearly $39 million had gone to three such companies.
Peña repeatedly brushed off the warnings. As recently as last month, he defended Ueno and the central bank’s oversight, dismissing the concerns as a smear campaign that was spooking the public.
But on Monday, it all came crashing down. Regulators investigating Ueno’s loans to companies linked to its owners found poorly documented lending, the central bank said, as well as expenses the bank had wrongly counted as assets.
Once the books were corrected, Ueno’s capital, the cushion banks must keep to absorb losses, fell to less than half the legal minimum. The central bank seized the lender Tuesday and announced plans to move customers’ accounts, along with whatever assets still hold value, to other banks before liquidating what’s left.
Ueno’s app, cards and transfers went dark and its branches locked their doors, leaving desperate depositors lined up outside with no way to cash out their savings. On Wednesday, a rush to open new accounts elsewhere crashed other banks’ mobile apps, fueling public panic.
Officials appealed for calm and said they had begun repaying depositors, opening new accounts elsewhere for about 280,000 who had banked only with Ueno.
“The banking system is sound,” insisted Pedro Acosta Bernal, appointed interim central bank president Wednesday after Carvallo resigned at Peña’s request.
Authorities have detained eight senior Ueno executives, including founder Miguel Vázquez and bank President Juan Manuel Gustale. Prosecutors also charged 27 bank officials and business associates with offenses including breach of trust and attempted fraud. Lawyers for several of the detained said they needed time to review the allegations before they could comment.
Hundreds of employees of Ueno Bank and other companies belonging to Grupo Vázquez, the bank’s parent conglomerate, protested outside the Labor Ministry on Thursday, demanding severance and unpaid wages with their jobs in limbo and their salaries trapped at the failed bank. A day earlier, hundreds of retirees, depositors, university students and workers flooded the streets of Asunción, the capital.
“We want your head, Peña!” they shouted. Their signs demanded Peña’s impeachment, called him “the enemy of savers” and pleaded “Give us back our money.” Riot police fired pepper spray and rubber pellets to push back the crowds.
Many demonstrators saw Ueno’s collapse not just as the result of risky banking but as a case study in official corruption. Only Venezuela ranks worse in South America on the latest index of perceived corruption from Transparency International, a global watchdog.
“This is yet another assault on honest, hard-working citizens, people whose small savings are the fruit of years of labor,” said protester Belarmino Balbuena.
At the national stadium that once bore Ueno’s name, the bank’s logo had already been scrubbed away. But across the capital, fresh graffiti denounced politicians as thieves.
Jorge Sáenz contributed to this story. DeBre reported from Buenos Aires, Argentina.
Deputy Carlos Pereira speaks during a discussion on the impeachment of President Santiago Peña in Paraguay's lower house of Congress, as banners reading "Impeachment Now" are displayed on opposition lawmakers' desks in Asuncion, Paraguay, Thursday, Nov. 5, 2026. (AP Photo/Jorge Saenz)
FILE - Paraguay President Santiago Peña speaks to the media at United Nations headquarters, Sept. 19, 2023. (AP Photo/Ted Shaffrey, File)
People protest in front of police against the government and Ueno Bank, which Paraguay's central bank seized amid a solvency crisis, in Asuncion, Paraguay, Wednesday, Nov. 4, 2026. (AP Photo/Jorge Saenz)
A demonstrator holds a mock U.S. dollar bill depicting Paraguayan President Santiago Peña during a protest against the government and Ueno Bank, which Paraguay's central bank seized amid a solvency crisis, in Asuncion, Paraguay, Wednesday, Nov. 4, 2026. (AP Photo/Jorge Saenz)
People protest against the government and Ueno bank, which Paraguay's central bank has seized amid a solvency crisis in Asuncion, Paraguay, Wednesday, Nov. 4, 2026. (AP Photo/Jorge Saenz)
People protest against the government and Ueno bank, which Paraguay's central bank has seized amid a solvency crisis in Asuncion, Paraguay, Wednesday, Nov. 4, 2026. (AP Photo/Jorge Saenz)
Executives of Ueno Bank, taken over by Paraguay's central bank amid a solvency crisis, arrive in custody at the anti-corruption prosecutor's office in Asuncion, Paraguay, Wednesday, Nov. 4, 2026. (AP Photo/Jorge Saenz)
People protest against the government and Ueno bank, which Paraguay's central bank has seized amid a solvency crisis, in Asuncion, Paraguay, Wednesday, Nov. 4, 2026. (AP Photo/Jorge Saenz)
Executives of Ueno Bank, taken over by Paraguay's central bank amid a solvency crisis, arrive in custody at the anti-corruption prosecutor's office in Asuncion, Paraguay, Wednesday, Nov. 4, 2026 (AP Photo/Jorge Saenz)
