Supreme Court Rejects Trump’s Last-Ditch Bid to Block Sentencing in New York Criminal Case
AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite
The Supreme Court on Thursday night denied an emergency petition from lawyers for President-elect Donald Trump to block Friday’s scheduled criminal sentencing in New York.
Five justices voted to deny Trump’s petition. The four who would have granted it were Justices Clarence Thomas, Samuel Alito, Neil Gorsuch, and Brett Kavanaugh.
In May, Trump was found guilty on 34 felony counts of falsifying records to cover up hush money payments he made to conceal extramarital affairs he had before the 2016 election.
The decision is largely moot, as Judge Juan Merchan is expected to give Trump an unconditional discharge, meaning the president-elect will not be given jail time, a fine, or probation. Merchan had postponed sentencing in September until after the election to “dispel any suggestion that the Court will have issued any decision or imposed sentence either to give an advantage to, or to create a disadvantage for, any political party and or any candidate for any office.”
After Trump won, Merchan said he would move forward with the sentencing.
In July, the Supreme Court – in a 6-3 decision along ideological lines – ruled in U.S. v. Trump that presidents have absolute immunity from criminal prosecution when exercising their core constitutional powers. Trump’s attorneys cited the Trump decision when asking the high court to prevent Merchan from sentencing the president-elect.
The day before the court denied Trump’s bid, ABC News reported he spoke with Justice Samuel Alito by phone on Tuesday. Alito denied discussing the matter with the president-elect.
“We did not discuss the emergency application he filed today, and indeed, I was not even aware at the time of our conversation that such an application would be filed,” Alito told 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.”
