Alvin Hellerstein, a federal judge who for decades oversaw some of the country’s most high-profile cases, counting among his defendants presidents and CEOs, has died, a spokesperson for the Southern District of New York confirmed Wednesday. He was 92.
At the time of his death, he was presiding over the criminal case of one former president, Nicolás Maduro of Venezuela, while steadfastly refusing to allow another president — Donald Trump — to move his criminal case from state court to Hellerstein’s Southern District of New York federal courthouse. Hellerstein had faced some criticism for taking on the Maduro case in January, just days after turning 92, and months after reporters observed him appearing to briefly fall asleep during the high-profile trial of Charlie Javice, a 32-year-old CEO who was convicted of defrauding JPMorgan in the $175 million sale of her startup.
Barry Pollack, an attorney for Maduro, said in a text message to CBS News, “We were saddened to learn of Judge Hellerstein’s passing and offer our condolences to his family.”
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Hellerstein was 64 years old when former President Bill Clinton appointed him to the federal bench. In the three decades since, he presided over major lawsuits related to the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, a federal lawsuit against convicted sex offender Harvey Weinstein, litigation related to evidence of abuse at Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq, the trial of Ponzi schemer David Hu, and last year ruled against President Trump’s use of the Alien Enemies Act in a case involving the deportation of Venezuelans.
During Hellerstein’s final years, he was a thorn in Mr. Trump’s side.
The no-nonsense judge repeatedly rejected efforts by Mr. Trump to remove his New York State criminal case to federal court. His opinions in the matter frequently scorned arguments made by Mr. Trump’s lawyers, who claimed that the facts at the heart of Mr. Trump’s “hush money” criminal case involved official acts under the color of his office. Mr. Trump was found guilty by a state jury in that case, which revolved around reimbursements made to former Trump attorney Michael Cohen for a payment just before the 2016 presidential election to adult film star Stephanie Clifford, whose stage name is Stormy Daniels.
“Reimbursing Cohen for advancing hush money to Stephanie Clifford cannot be considered the performance of a constitutional duty,” Hellerstein wrote. “Falsifying business records to hide such reimbursement, and to transform the reimbursement into a business expense for Trump and income to Cohen, likewise does not relate to a presidential duty.”
A 2024 ruling by the Supreme Court had forced Hellerstein to reconsider that determination. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit ordered Hellerstein to reexamine arguments around presidential immunity, factoring the Supreme Court’s landmark decision that upended multiple Trump cases. Hellerstein ruled against Mr. Trump in that matter one last time on Aug. 28, writing that “the trial evidence does not infringe on presidential immunity.”
Hellerstein presided over cases connected to the Maduro matter since 2014. But his death is unlikely to create significant delays in the case, according to lawyer and former federal prosecutor Duncan Levin.
“There’s no automatic pause, and there’s really no fixed period of delay. Obviously a new judge is going to need time to get familiar with the case, but they can keep all the existing dates on the calendar or adjust them as necessary,” Levin said. “One of the main qualifications of being a judge is that you can read a lot of paper. The fact that there’s extra paperwork falls into their skill set.”
