The U.S. Supreme Court has declined to postpone President-elect Donald Trump’s sentencing in his hush money case, paving the way for him to face sentencing in a New York courtroom on Friday.
Citing the court’s own ruling in July that granted him “presidential immunity,” Trump’s legal team argued in a document filed on Tuesday that the Supreme Court of New York County “wrongly refused to recognize the immunity from prosecution of the president-elect during the period of the presidential transition.”
Trump’s lawyers requested the U.S. Supreme Court to immediately pause the ongoing criminal case in New York while they appealed the legal issue concerning whether Trump is immune from prosecution because of his former role as president.
Despite its 6-to-3 conservative majority, the Supreme Court denied Trump’s last-ditch effort to avoid criminal sentencing before the January 20 inauguration.
Trump, 78, who pleaded not guilty, is expected to appear virtually at the hearing.
“He doesn’t want to be sentenced because that is the official judgment of him being a convicted felon,” said Cheryl Bader, a law professor at Fordham University in New York.
In May 2024, a jury in New York found Trump guilty of all 34 felony counts of falsifying business records in a bid to hide hush money payments to a porn star during Trump’s first presidential campaign in 2016.
On Monday, Trump’s lawyers filed a lawsuit at an appeals court in New York against Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg and Judge Juan Merchan over the judge’s denial of Trump’s presidential immunity motions.
A hearing for Trump’s sentencing is scheduled for Friday morning in Lower Manhattan. The president-elect indicated that he plans to appear virtually.
“After months of delay, the sentencing will now formalize Mr. Trump’s conviction, cementing his status as the first felon to occupy the Oval Office,” reported The New York Times.
(With input from agencies)
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U.S. Supreme Court declines to halt Trump's hush money sentencing
cgtn.com
