Trump Begs Supreme Court to Stop His Hush Money Case Sentencing

Dan Ladden-Hall
·2 min read
Donald Trump
Getty Images

President-elect Donald Trump on Wednesday made a last-ditch attempt to halt his looming sentencing by making an emergency appeal to the Supreme Court.

Trump was criminally convicted in Manhattan last year on 34 felonies for falsifying business records in an attempt to hide a payment to porn star Stormy Daniels to stop her speaking about a sexual encounter, which Trump denies.

His attorneys asked the country’s top court to intervene after a New York appeals court this week rejected Trump’s request for a delay in sentencing—which is currently scheduled for Friday, just 10 days ahead of his Jan. 20 inauguration.

Trump’s attorneys argue in their petition that he is immune from criminal proceedings as president-elect and asked for a stay of the sentencing in order “to prevent grave injustice and harm to the institution of the Presidency and the operations of the federal government.”

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The Manhattan District Attorney’s Office says it will respond to the appeal in court papers.

Judge Juan Merchan, who presided over Trump’s trial in New York, has previously disagreed with Trump’s lawyers’ arguments that his conviction should have been thrown out in light of the Supreme Court’s July ruling giving presidents immunity for official acts while in office.

Last week, Merchan made clear that he does not intend to sentence Trump to prison time, probation, or impose fines in relation to his conviction. Instead, the judge wrote in a court filing that an unconditional discharge—a sentence that does not have any punishment—appears to be “the most viable solution.”

Such a sentence would nevertheless mean that Trump retains his status as a convicted felon as he returns to the White House.

“[T]he prospect of imposing sentence on President Trump just before he assumes Office as the 47th President raises the specter of other possible restrictions on liberty, such as travel, reporting requirements, registration, probationary requirements, and others—all of which would be constitutionally intolerable under the doctrine of Presidential immunity,” Trump’s lawyers argued in their petition. “Indeed, every adjudication of a felony conviction results in significant collateral consequences for the defendant, regardless of whether a term of imprisonment is imposed.”

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