The Supreme Court refused to block Trump’s sentencing

The U.S. Senate Hush-Money Case Against President-Elect Donald Trump: Finality in the Sensitivity of the Prosecutor

A divided U.S. Supreme Court rejected President-elect Donald Trump’s request to stop his sentencing in the New York hush-money case, scheduled for Friday.

Of course, Trump’s legal team is likely to appeal the conviction and sentence again — as they have done throughout the legal proceeding. Appeals could stretch on for years.

This was the only one of Trump’s criminal charges to go to trial, making him the first former or future U.S. president to be convicted of criminal charges.

Trump has argued that as president-elect he is immune from all prosecution and sentencing, after the Supreme Court last summer ruled that presidents enjoy broad immunity from prosecution.

District Attorney Bragg said that a sentencing before inauguration would preserve the jury’s verdict and the law.

Since Trump asked for multiple delays in sentencing, any delay would force the case to be put on hold for years, until Trump finishes his second term.

Merchan had previously delayed the sentencing multiple times to avoid the perception of political bias ahead of the 2024 election, and then to allow Trump’s team to argue the president had immunity and the case should be dismissed altogether. Merchan ended up rejecting those claims.

Trump’s lawyers still accused the prosecutor on the case, Bragg, of having political motivations, and argued it was up to appellate courts — and possibly the Supreme Court itself — to weigh in on the presidential immunity claims.

The future president is set to appear in a New York courtroom on Friday for sentencing on multiple felony charges of hiding payments to an adult film star.

The director of the criminal defense clinic at New York Law School, Anna Cominsky said that it was the least restrictive way to impede the president-elect as he takes office.

“It certainly makes sense that there be some finality to this case because as a nation, we should want to move on, in particular as he assumes the role of president, and be able to look forward to the next four years without this sentence pending,” Cominsky said. “There needs to be an end.”

Trump’s “fixer” stormy Daniels and his alleged affair with the president in the New York State court: evidence from a Manhattan jury

The jury in Manhattan state court heard from 22 witnesses during about a month of testimony in Manhattan’s criminal court. The jury got a lot of evidence, most of it related to phone records, invoices and checks Michael Cohen, Trump’s former “fixer” who paid Stormy Daniels to keep her from telling her story about an alleged affair with the president.

The conviction did not seem to have an effect on Trump’s popularity nor his electoral victory during the 2024 presidential election. He has used the drama to raise money for his campaign.