By MICHAEL HILL, MICHAEL R. SISAK and LINDSAY WHITEHURST, Associated Press
ALBANY, N.Y. (AP) — New York’s highest court on Thursday declined to block Donald Trump’s upcoming sentencing in his hush money case, leaving the U.S. Supreme Court as the president-elect’s likely last option to prevent the hearing from taking place Friday.
One judge of the New York Court of Appeals issued a brief order declining to grant a hearing to Trump’s legal team.
Trump has asked the Supreme Court to call off Friday’s sentencing. His lawyers turned to the nation’s highest court Wednesday after New York courts refused to postpone the sentencing by Judge Juan M. Merchan. Merchan presided over Trump’s trial and conviction last May on 34 felony counts of falsifying business records in what prosecutors called an attempt to cover up a $130,000 hush money payment to porn actor Stormy Daniels. Trump has denied wrongdoing.
In a filing to the top New York court, Trump’s attorneys had said Merchan and the state’s mid-level appellate court both “erroneously failed” to stop the sentencing, arguing that the Constitution requires an automatic pause as they appeal and that the sentencing would disrupt the Republican’s presidential transition as he prepares to return to the White House on Jan. 20.
Prosecutors pushed back, saying there’s no reason for the high court to take the “extraordinary step” of entering a state case to halt a sentencing that’s been delayed at Trump’s request.
“There is a compelling public interest in proceeding to sentencing,” Manhattan prosecutors wrote. “Defendant has provided no record support for his claim that his duties as President-elect foreclose him from virtually attending a sentencing that will likely take no more than an hour.”
While Merchan has indicated he will not impose jail time, fines or probation, Trump’s lawyers argued a felony conviction would still have intolerable side effects, including distracting him as he prepares to take office.
Trump’s attorney D. John Sauer called the case politically motivated and said sentencing now would be a “grave injustice.” Sauer is also Trump’s pick to be solicitor general, who represents the government before the high court.
The emergency motion to the U.S. Supreme Court was submitted to Justice Sonia Sotomayor, who hears emergency appeals from New York.
Trump’s attorneys also argue that evidence used in the Manhattan trial violated last summer’s Supreme Court ruling giving Trump broad immunity from prosecution over acts he took as president. At the least, they have said, the sentencing should be delayed while their appeals play out on the immunity issue.
Judges in New York have found that Trump’s convictions related to personal matters rather than the official presidential at the core of the Supreme Court’s ruling.
Prosecutors argue Trump’s claims aren’t strong enough to overturn his conviction and his appeal shouldn’t freeze the case because it’s about evidence rather than the core charges.
Any pause now would likely push the schedule out past Trump’s inauguration, creating a yearslong or indefinite delay, prosecutors wrote.
Sisak reported from New York, Whitehurst from Washington.
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