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NEW YORK (CHATNEWSTV) — New York’s highest court has rejected President-elect Donald Trump’s attempt to delay his sentencing in the hush money case, leaving the U.S. Supreme Court as his last option to postpone the hearing scheduled for Friday.
In a brief letter issued Thursday, the New York Court of Appeals informed Trump’s attorneys that his request to block state Judge Juan Merchan from imposing a sentence had been denied. Trump had appealed to both the Supreme Court and the Court of Appeals to halt the proceedings, following his May conviction on 34 counts of falsifying business records in relation to a $130,000 hush money payment to adult-film star Stormy Daniels.
Trump’s legal team now has one final avenue — the U.S. Supreme Court — to intervene and prevent the sentencing. The former president’s attorneys filed a motion Wednesday after the First Division of the New York Appellate Court also denied a request to delay the sentencing.
Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg told the Supreme Court in a filing Thursday that the protections previously granted to Trump in July, regarding actions taken during his presidency, should not apply in this case. The charges stem from actions he took in 2016, well before he assumed office.
“It is axiomatic that there is only one president at a time,” Bragg wrote, adding that presidential immunity is limited to the period of a president’s term in office. “Trump’s extraordinary immunity claim is unsupported by any decision from any court.”
Judge Merchan has already indicated that he will not impose jail time or other punishment on Trump, even if sentencing moves forward. However, the sentencing of a former president — and soon-to-be sitting president — would mark a historic and unprecedented moment in U.S. legal history.
Trump, who is expected to appear virtually for the hearing, is set to be inaugurated as president in less than two weeks. Despite his victory in the November election, Trump has made extensive efforts through multiple courts to overturn or delay his felony conviction.
In May, Trump was convicted on charges related to payments made to his then-lawyer Michael Cohen for the hush money to Daniels, aimed at silencing her over an alleged affair prior to the 2016 election. Trump has consistently denied the affair.
Trump’s attorneys had urged Judge Merchan to dismiss the conviction based on the Supreme Court’s decision on presidential immunity and Trump’s status as president-elect, but both motions were rejected.
