Which courts issued donald trump's convictions and were any convictions appealed or overturned by december 2025?
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Executive summary
Donald Trump’s lone criminal conviction to reach a jury was in Manhattan Supreme Court, where a jury found him guilty on 34 counts of falsifying business records tied to hush‑money payments; he was later sentenced to an unconditional discharge on January 10, 2025 [1] [2] [3]. By late 2025 he was aggressively appealing that New York conviction through multiple routes — filing state appeals and pressing federal courts to take the case on immunity grounds — but available sources show the conviction had not been overturned by December 2025 [4] [5] [6] [7].
1. The conviction’s origin: Manhattan Supreme Court and the hush‑money trial
The only conviction that reached a jury against Trump occurred in New York state court: a six‑week trial in Manhattan Supreme Court resulted in guilty verdicts on 34 counts of falsifying business records related to payments tied to Stormy Daniels, returned on May 30, 2024 [1] [2]. Reporting and court documents describe the case as a state prosecution brought by the Manhattan district attorney [2] [3].
2. Sentencing and immediate legal status: unconditional discharge, but conviction stands
After the conviction the judge later imposed an unconditional discharge on January 10, 2025 — meaning no jail, probation or fines — but the underlying guilty verdict remained on the record and Trump publicly vowed to appeal [3] [2] [4]. Multiple outlets note that an unconditional discharge does not erase the conviction itself [3] [2].
3. Dual appeal strategy: state appeals and a push into federal court
Trump’s legal team pursued parallel strategies: a conventional appeal in the New York state appellate system and an unprecedented bid to have the case moved into federal court so federal judges could assess whether presidential‑immunity principles should nullify the conviction [4] [5] [7]. Federal appeals panels in 2025 gave his team opportunities to press that removal theory, and a 2nd Circuit panel in November 2025 instructed a lower court to reconsider refusals to move the case to federal court [6] [8] [9].
4. The immunity argument and the Supreme Court’s role
The push to transfer the case to federal court rests on the Supreme Court’s 2024 immunity ruling, which recognized some official‑act immunity for presidents; Trump’s lawyers argue evidence at trial implicated official acts and therefore required federal review — a line of argument rejected at trial but accepted as worth reconsideration by some federal judges on procedural grounds [7] [6] [10]. Reporters and legal scholars quoted in the coverage described the theory as novel and noted mixed predictions about its ultimate success [11] [12].
5. Outcomes through December 2025: conviction not overturned, but appellate fights alive
As of December 2025 the conviction had not been overturned. News organizations and court filings show Trump formally filed state appeals and obtained procedural wins in federal appeals courts that reopened questions about removability and immunity — but none of those steps produced a final reversal of the guilty verdict by that date [4] [7] [6] [5]. Fact‑checking outlets explicitly debunked social posts claiming the conviction had already been overturned or that he had been awarded money because of an overturned verdict [13].
6. Broader context: other cases, dismissals, and limits of clemency or pardon
Separate federal prosecutions brought by Special Counsel Jack Smith were dropped when Trump returned to the presidency, and state cases in Georgia were paused or altered amid prosecutorial conflicts; those developments are distinct from the Manhattan conviction and do not by themselves erase it [14] [15]. Available sources do not mention any presidential pardon or clemency that vacated the New York conviction as of December 2025 (not found in current reporting).
7. What to watch next: appellate timelines and potential Supreme Court stakes
Court orders in late 2025 gave federal judges new tasks — reexamining denials of removal and probing immunity thresholds — which could accelerate appeals or create a path toward the U.S. Supreme Court if federal removal is granted and immunity questions remain [6] [8]. Reporters emphasize that even successful procedural wins do not guarantee an ultimate reversal; they only open additional avenues for review [9] [12].
Limitations and competing perspectives: News outlets cite both procedural defenders of the original verdict — who say the conduct was personal and the state trial lawful — and Trump’s counsel and allies, who characterize the prosecution as politicized and argue immunity or jurisdictional defects require erasure of the conviction [2] [5] [10]. This summary relies solely on the provided reporting; available sources do not mention any final appellate reversal of the Manhattan conviction by December 2025 (not found in current reporting).