U.S. Supreme Court denies Trump bid to delay sentencing in NYC hush money case

Molly Crane-Newman, New York Daily News on Jan 9, 2025

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NEW YORK — The U.S. Supreme Court on Thursday refused to delay Donald Trump’s sentencing in his New York City hush money case less than 24 hours before it is set to take place, marking a significant defeat for the president-elect that means his historic conviction will be finalized before he retakes office.

The nation’s high court denied Trump’s request for an emergency stay, or pause, of the criminal proceedings in his Manhattan case as he fights a set of rulings by state Supreme Court Justice Juan Merchan, meaning the proceeding will go forward Friday. Trump was convicted in May of falsifying business records for covering up a payoff to porn star Stormy Daniels to suppress her story about an alleged sordid sexual encounter and others.

Asking the Supreme Court to turn back Trump’s bid for a delay earlier Thursday, prosecutors had warned pausing the sentencing threatened to delay Trump being brought to justice for years.

Merchan unexpectedly scheduled the proceeding to take place on Friday at 9:30 a.m. in a decision last week in which he refused to throw out the case. He said that the president-elect could appear for sentencing by video and that he was inclined to sentence him to an unconditional discharge, meaning he would not face jail time, fines, or probation.

But Trump fought back. Though he is not expected to face any form of punishment, the sentencing will bring closure to his conviction and officially classify him as a convicted felon just 10 days before his second presidential term begins, a first in history.

Trump’s lawyers failed to convince Merchan and two New York appeals courts to halt the sentencing.

In a last-ditch move, they asked the nine justices from the nation’s highest court to intervene on Wednesday, arguing that the Constitution required the case to be paused as Trump tried to fight Merchan’s rulings.

Among other arguments, they have said that Trump should receive presidential immunity as the president-in-waiting and that Merchan should have barred evidence relating to his first presidency at his trial.

Prosecutors from Bragg’s office had told the Supreme Court in filings Thursday that there was no basis for its intervention and that Trump’s legal positions were unsupported by any court anywhere.

Asking the high court to agree with multiple New York judges, they said the court’s ruling from last year granting a president sweeping protections from criminal prosecution did not apply to the case about the 2016 hush-money scheme, devised before Trump’s first presidency, or to him now as he prepares to retake office.

“(Defendant) makes the unprecedented claim that the temporary presidential immunity he will possess in the future fully immunizes him now, weeks before he even takes the oath of office, from all state-court criminal process,” prosecutors wrote.

“This extraordinary immunity claim is unsupported by any decision from any court. It is axiomatic that there is only one President at a time.”

A jury on May 30 found Trump, 78, guilty of 34 felony counts of falsifying business records stemming from a scheme to hide embarrassing details about his past from voters in 2016 that violated New York election law.

The Manhattan case was the only one of four brought against Trump after his first term that made it before a jury. When he takes office, he cannot pardon himself of the state-level charges.

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