Justice Juan M. Merchan has tried to treat Donald J. Trump like the hundreds of other defendants whose fates he has decided. But his decision could alter American history.

A federal judge denied the former president’s eleventh hour request to transfer the case out of state court. His attorneys began the appeals process Tuesday night.

A federal judge has rejected Donald Trump’s request to intervene in his New York hush money criminal case, thwarting the former president’s latest bid to overturn his felony conviction and delay his sentencing.