Posts suggesting panel of Black female judges would hear Trump’s appeal are misleading

A jury in New York found former President Trump guilty of 34 counts of falsifying business records in a scheme to illegally influence the 2016 presidential election through hush money payments to adult film star Stormy Daniels.

Trump’s legal team says they will appeal his conviction. That led multiple people online to share a photo of five Black female judges who they suggested are the judges who would hear Trump’s appeal.

“Trump’s conviction is a NY State Case so can only be appealed within NEW YORK STATE - NOT to the Supreme Court. Let me introduce you to the Manhattan Appeals Court. Good luck,” one of the viral posts with over 500,000 views says.

VERIFY reader Shelley sent us a similar post and asked whether this panel of five judges would actually hear Trump’s appeal in the hush money case. 

THE QUESTION

Does this viral photo show the panel of judges who would hear Trump’s appeal in the hush money case?

THE SOURCES

• New York’s Appellate Division, First Department
• Sam Feldman, an attorney specializing in criminal appeals in New York City
• Daniel Warshawsky, a professor of law at New York Law School who worked in the Office of the Appellate Defender
• Vin Bonventre, Ph.D., professor of law at Albany Law School

THE ANSWER

The five Black female judges shown in the viral photo are among the 21 judges on the appellate court that could hear Trump’s appeal. The four or five judges who would hear the appeal would be randomly chosen from that pool.

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WHAT WE FOUND

It’s impossible to know exactly which judges would hear former President Trump’s appeal of his criminal conviction in New York, despite the viral posts suggesting otherwise.

The five judges shown in the viral photo are among the 21 judges on a New York appellate court that could hear Trump’s appeal, any of whom could be randomly chosen to be on a panel of about five justices.

If Trump files an appeal, it would go to New York’s Appellate Division, First Department, which is the intermediate appeals court that covers Manhattan, three legal experts told VERIFY. 

There are 21 judges on that court, including the five justices in the viral photo. That viral photo of the five justices comes from a February 2024 press release about oral arguments before the Appellate Division’s First Department being heard for the first time “by an all-African American bench.”

But Trump “would not be guaranteed to get that panel” of five judges if he files an appeal, Sam Feldman, an attorney specializing in criminal appeals in New York City, said. 

Vin Bonventre, Ph.D., professor of law at Albany Law School, agrees. He said this panel is not the one that Trump “would necessarily face at all.”

That’s because any five of those 21 justices on the appellate court could hear the appeal.

Legal experts explained to VERIFY how the process works. 

A panel of four to five justices – most likely five – would be randomly chosen to hear the appeal, Feldman and Daniel Warshawsky, a professor of law at New York Law School who worked in the Office of the Appellate Defender, said.

That hasn’t happened yet since Trump’s legal team has not officially appealed his conviction. Once the appeal is filed, both sides must file written briefs before the case is assigned to a panel of judges, Warshawsky said. 

The panel that ultimately hears and decides a case is “chosen randomly before oral argument,” Feldman said. 

New York’s Appellate Division, First Department did not respond to VERIFY’s request for comment.

The appeals process usually takes a while, so “it’s also possible that one or more of the current judges will retire and be replaced before Trump’s appeal is heard,” Feldman said. 

If Trump loses his appeal in the First Department, he could try to further appeal his case to the New York Court of Appeals, which is the state’s highest court, and then eventually to the U.S. Supreme Court. But he could not directly appeal his hush money conviction to the Supreme Court.