WASHINGTON – The Supreme Court on Thursday rejected President-elect Donald Trump’s request to block criminal proceedings in his hush money case in New York, meaning a sentencing hearing scheduled for Friday can move forward.
The decision, reached by a 5-4 vote with four conservatives dissenting, meant the conservative-majority court reversed course after handing Trump two big victories last year. Trump is scheduled to return to the presidency on January 20.
The brief, unsigned order said the issues Trump wants to raise “may be addressed in the ordinary course of appeal.” The burden the sentence imposes on Trump is “relatively insubstantial,” the court added, because Trump will not receive any prison sentence.
The three liberal justices were in the majority with Chief Justice John Roberts and conservative Justice Amy Coney Barrett.
Spokespeople for Trump did not immediately respond to a request for comment Thursday evening.
Trump’s lawyers said in court papers that if the Supreme Court did not intervene, the New York court would inflict “grave injustices and harm” on the presidency.
They argued that the case should not move forward because Trump was protected by presidential immunity, as the Supreme Court recognized in a ruling last year on Trump’s prosecution for trying to overturn the results of the 2020 election.
The court ruled at the time that while actions taken by presidents in their personal capacity would not be protected, certain official acts taken by presidents are barred from criminal prosecution.
A New York appeals court judge on Tuesday refused to block Trump’s sentence.
Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg had urged the court not to intervene, saying in court papers that because the case is ongoing in lower courts, the judges do not have jurisdiction to consider Trump’s claim at this stage. . He added that there is a “compelling public interest” in allowing the sentencing to go forward following the jury’s guilty verdict.
Trump was convicted in May of falsifying records related to money his then-attorney Michael Cohen paid to adult film star Stormy Daniels in the final days of the 2016 presidential election. Daniels testified that she had a sexual encounter with Trump in 2006. , which he has denied.
Trump’s lawyers argued that some evidence at trial focused on official actions he took in the White House and are protected by the recent Supreme Court ruling. They also took the unprecedented step of saying that an elected president should have the same protection from criminal prosecution as a sitting president.
Judge Juan Merchán, who presided over the trial, had postponed Trump’s initial sentencing date in the wake of the Supreme Court’s immunity ruling. But he later ruled that Trump has no immunity until he is sworn in as president and ordered Trump’s sentencing on 34 felony counts of falsifying business records to take place Friday morning.
Merchan made clear last week that the sentence would not include any prison time for Trump.
The Supreme Court has helped pave the way for Trump to regain office despite the many legal obstacles he has faced in recent years.
The immunity ruling dealt what turned out to be a fatal blow to the election interference prosecution, led by special prosecutor Jack Smith. In a separate ruling last year, the court also ensured that states could not expel Trump from their ballots under a constitutional provision that bars people who have “participated in the insurrection” from holding federal office.
This is a development history. Please check back for updates.
