President-elect Donald Trump will be sentenced in the Stormy Daniels hush money case on Friday after the United States Supreme Court rejected his last-minute bid to halt the case.
The Court found 5-4 that Trump’s sentencing on 34 felony counts would not be an insurmountable burden as he takes back the White House, noting that Judge Juan Merchan has indicated he would not give the incoming president any jail time, fines or probation.
‘First, the alleged evidentiary violations as president-elect Trump’s state-court trial can be addressed in the ordinary course of appeal,’ the unsigned ruling said.
‘Second, the burden that sentencing will impose on the president elect’s responsibilities is relatively insurmountable in light of the trial court’s stated intent to impose a sentence of “unconditional discharge” after a brief virtual hearing.’
Among those who supported the decision were Chief Justice John Roberts and Justices Sonia Sotomayor, Elena Kagan, Amy Coney Barrett and Ketanji Brown.
Justices Clarence Thomas, Samuel Alito, Neil Gorsuch and Brett Kavanaugh would have delayed the sentencing, the order states.
Still, the incoming president hit out at the decision Thursday night, as he hurled insults at Merchan.
‘I am innocent of all of the judge’s made up, fake charges,’ he wrote on his Truth Social platform.
President-elect Donald Trump will be sentenced in the Stormy Daniels hush money case on Friday
The Court found 5-4 that Trump’s sentencing on 34 felony counts would not be an insurmountable burden as he takes back the White House
He railed against the decision in a post on his Truth Social platform Thursday night
Still, he said he was appreciative of ‘the time and effort of the United States Supreme Court in trying to remedy the great injustice done to me.’
Trump then reiterated the message at a news conference from his Mar-a-Lago estate on Thursday night.
‘We’re going to appeal anyway, just psychologically, because frankly it’s a disgrace,’ he said, though he noted he found a silver lining in reading the Supreme Court decision, according to the New York Times.
‘I read it and I thought it was a fair decision, actually, so I’ll do my little thing tomorrow. They can have fun with their little political opponent,’ he said, trying to paint the judge as politically-motivated.
Trump’s attorneys had asked for the sentencing be delayed as he appeals the verdict.
They argued that Trump is immune from criminal proceedings as president-elect, and said that some of the evidence used in the Manhattan trial violated last summer’s Supreme Court immunity decision.
The Supreme Court should immediately stop proceedings ‘to prevent grave injustice and harm to the institution of the Presidency and the operations of the federal government,’ his team argues.
At the least, they have said, the sentencing should be delayed while their appeals play out to avoid distracting Trump during the White House transition.
The Supreme Court should immediately stop proceedings ‘to prevent grave injustice and harm to the institution of the Presidency and the operations of the federal government,’ his team argued.
Judge Juan Merchan has indicated he would not give the incoming president any jail time, fines or probation
But prosecutors pushed back, saying there’s no reason for the court to take the ‘extraordinary step’ of intervening in a state case now.
They also claimed that Trump’s attorneys did not prove that an hourlong virtual hearing would be a serious disruption, and noted that any delay could mean pushing the case past the January 20 inauguration.
‘We brought a case. A jury of ordinary New Yorkers returned 34 guilty verdicts,’ Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg said at an unrelated news conference Thursday afternoon.
‘Our function right now primarily is to continue to give voice to that verdict and respect, as a principle – bedrock principle of the administration of justice – that the jury´s voice must not be rubbed out.’
The Supreme Court’s decision after a judge in the New York Court of Appeals, the state’s highest court, declined to grant a separate request from Trump’s legal team to halt the sentencing.
Earlier this week, a judge in the First Department of New York’s Appellate Division in Manhattan rejected a similar request.
Prosecutors under Manhattan District Attorney pushed back, saying there’s no reason for the court to take the ‘extraordinary step’ of intervening in a state case now
Judges in New York have found that the convictions on falsifying business records related to personal matters rather than Trump´s official acts as president. Daniels says she had a sexual encounter with Trump in 2006.
Trump has denied any liaison with Daniels or any wrongdoing.
Thursday’s comes after the conservative-majority court has handed Trump major victories over the past year, ensuring that states could not kick him off the ballot because of the 2021 attack on the Capitol and giving him immunity from prosecution over some acts he took as president in a ruling that delayed an election-interference case against him.
The justices could also be faced with weighing other parts of the sweeping conservative changes he’s promised after he takes office.
But the decision on Trump’s hush money case was almost upended after Justice Alito confirmed he took a phone call from the incoming president.
The conservative justice has since said he spoke with the president-elect by phone on Tuesday to recommend a former law clerk for a job.
Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito revealed he spoke with President-elect Trump on the phone the day before Trump’s lawyers asked the court to halt the hush money case sentencing
‘William Levi, one of my former law clerks, asked me to take a call from President-elect Trump regarding his qualifications to serve in a government position,’ Alito said in a statement.
‘I agreed to discuss this matter with President-elect Trump, and he called me yesterday afternoon,’ Alito continued.
The statement from Alito was released after the call was first reported by ABC News.
‘We also did not discuss any other matter that is pending or might in the future come before the Supreme Court or any past Supreme Court decisions involving the President-elect,’ Alito said.
The unusual communication prompted calls for Alito to recuse himself, including from the top Democrat on the House Judiciary Committee.
Justices make their own decisions about whether to recuse and Alito still weighed in on the case, but Alito ultimately stayed on the hush money case and sided with the incoming president.
