Supreme Court rejects Trump’s attempt to delay sentencing in his hush payments case

The U.S. Supreme Court on Thursday rejected Donald Trump’s request to halt his sentencing in a New York state court over his conviction on criminal charges stemming from hush money paid to a porn star.

The court, in a 5-4 decision, rejected Trump’s last-minute attempt to avoid his sentencing, scheduled for Friday at 9:30 a.m. in New York state court in Manhattan.

Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts and his conservative colleague, Amy Coney Barrett, joined the court’s three liberal justices – Sonia Sotomayor, Elena Kagan and Ketanji Brown Jackson – in a majority vote to reject Trump’s request.

The brief order laid out two reasons for the decision.

“First, the alleged evidentiary violations in President-elect Trump’s state trial can be addressed in the ordinary course of appeal. Second, the burden that the ruling will place on the president-elect’s responsibilities is relatively insignificant to the light of the trial court’s stated intention to impose a sentence of ‘unconditional release’ after a brief virtual hearing.”

The trial judge in Trump’s case, Juan Merchan, said last week that he was unwilling to sentence the Republican president-elect to prison and would likely grant him unconditional release. This would put a guilty verdict on Trump’s record, but would not impose jail time, a fine or probation.

Four conservative justices (Clarence Thomas, Samuel Alito, Neil Gorsuch and Brett Kavanaugh) dissented from the decision and said they would have accepted Trump’s request.

Trump had sought relief from the justices as he filed an appeal in state court to resolve presidential immunity issues following a Supreme Court ruling last July that granted former presidents broad immunity from criminal prosecution for their official acts.

The Supreme Court acted after New York’s highest court on Thursday rejected Trump’s request to halt his sentencing.

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