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President Donald Trump waves as he walks from Marine One...

President Donald Trump waves as he walks from Marine One upon arrival on the South Lawn of the White House in Washington on Monday. Credit: AP/Rod Lamkey

President Donald Trump has selected a high-profile lawyer with a Southampton home to help lead the appeal of his conviction on 34 counts of falsifying business records to cover up an alleged affair with an adult film star.

Robert Giuffra Jr., 64, co-chair of the law firm Sullivan & Cromwell in Manhattan, filed a single-page notification of appeal on Wednesday morning with the State Supreme Court in Manhattan.

"President Donald J. Trump’s appeal is important for the rule of law, New York’s reputation as a global business, financial and legal center, as well as for the presidency and all public officials," Giuffra said in a statement to The Associated Press. "The misuse of the criminal law by the Manhattan DA to target President Trump sets a dangerous precedent, and we look forward to the case being dismissed on appeal."

Giuffra will take over the case after Trump named two of his criminal defense lawyers, Todd Blanche and Emil Bove, to deputy attorney general positions in the Department of Justice.

    WHAT NEWSDAY FOUND

  • President Donald Trump's attorney filed a notice with the court that he would appeal his conviction for falsifying business records.
  • Trump replaced his criminal trial lawyers with high-profile lawyer Robert Giuffra Jr.
  • Giuffra, who lives in Manhattan and Southampton, is co-chair of the New York City law firm Sullivan & Cromwell.

Giuffra, who splits his time between Manhattan and Southampton, represents Nassau County in its legal battle against Hofstra University over the Las Vegas Sands casino lease of the Nassau Coliseum.

The Yale University graduate is also the president of the Lake Agawam Conservancy, a Southampton organization geared toward preserving and protecting the body of water.

He represented former Sen. Alfonse D’Amato’s brother Armand D’Amato and successfully persuaded a federal appeals court to overturn Armand D'Amato's 1993 conviction on mail fraud charges.

Among Giuffra's other high-profile cases was a $1.2 billion Volkswagen settlement in 2017 over allegations that it had rigged its cars to cheat on emission tests.

Giuffra served on the New York State Ethics Commission from 1998 to 2007 and then the New York State Commission on Public Integrity from 2007 to 2009.

Jay Clayton, who Trump nominated to be the U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York, also works at Sullivan & Cromwell.

A notice of Giuffra's appointment as co-counsel and a transcript of the sentencing hearing were included in the notice of appeal submission.

Requests for comment from Newsday to Giuffra, the White House and Sullivan & Cromwell were not immediately returned.

Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg charged Trump with conspiring with David Pecker, the publisher of supermarket tabloid The National Enquirer, and former fixer Michael Cohen to cover up the president’s extramarital affairs from voters ahead of the 2016 presidential election.

A Manhattan jury in May convicted the president in less than two days after a six-week trial.

Trump was sentenced Jan. 10, just over a week before his inauguration, to an unconditional discharge, meaning he served no prison time, but remains a convicted felon, the first president to hold office with a criminal record.

"It’s been a political witch hunt," Trump said at the sentencing hearing. "It was done to damage my reputation so that I would lose the election, and obviously, that didn’t work."

Giuffra’s filing gave no indication of his legal strategy for the appeal, but at the recent hearing, Trump said it was his accountant, not he, who had labeled the payments in his ledger.

The hush money payments to reimburse Cohen for paying off adult film star Stormy Daniels regarding the alleged affair she had with Trump were marked as "legal fees."

"I didn’t call them construction, concrete work," Trump said at the hearing. "I didn’t call them electrical work. I didn’t call them anything. They called them legal fees or legal expenses and for this I got indicted."

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