President-elect Donald Trump lost a bid on Thursday to delay his sentencing in his criminal case by the highest court in New York, while a similar appeal is still pending at the Supreme Court.
The Empire State’s top court rejected Trump’s effort to delay the sentencing Thursday morning, roughly an hour after Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s office countered Trump’s request, arguing his claim of “president-elect immunity” was baseless. The request to delay the case was denied by New York Court of Appeals Judge Jenny Rivera, according to a brief letter sent to Trump’s legal counsel.
Trump had filed an urgent petition to the state’s highest court Wednesday seeking to pause the hush money case that resulted in his conviction on 34 felony counts of falsifying business records. Simultaneously, he asked the Supreme Court to intervene and delay the sentencing.
Bragg’s team of prosecutors had asked the state court to deny the delay, asserting that immunity protections apply only to a sitting president, not an incoming one.
“The President-elect is, by definition, not yet the President,” prosecutors wrote in their filing Thursday morning. “The President-elect therefore does not perform any Article II functions under the Constitution, and there are no Article II functions that would be burdened by ordinary criminal process involving the President-elect.”
The Supreme Court has not yet ruled on Trump’s parallel appeal, leaving the sentencing scheduled to proceed as planned. Bragg’s office filed its response to Trump’s separate Supreme Court request by 10 a.m., and a decision from the justices is likely forthcoming.
For now, Trump is scheduled to be sentenced Friday after his May 2024 conviction on charges tied to a $130,000 hush money payment to adult film actress Stormy Daniels during the 2016 presidential campaign. The scandal that has plagued him for years and now threatens to mark him as the first convicted felon to become president if his conviction is affirmed through the sentencing procedure.
Prosecutors argued the payment was made to suppress damaging allegations and boost his electoral chances.
In their Thursday filing, Manhattan prosecutors expressed confidence in their case, noting the jury saw “overwhelming” evidence of Trump’s guilt. They also criticized his repeated attempts to delay sentencing and his “contemptuous conduct” during court proceedings.
Despite facing up to four years in prison, Trump is likely to receive an unconditional discharge from New York Judge Juan Merchan, who ordered the Friday sentencing and previously presided over the trial.
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Such a sentence would impose no prison time, fines, or probation, leaving only a blemish on Trump’s record. Merchan indicated this approach aims to balance respect for Trump’s transition to the presidency with the principle of presidential immunity.
Prosecutors argued this low-level sentence makes further delays unnecessary. “Indeed, if defendant is ever to be sentenced in this proceeding, the least burdensome time to do so is now, before his inauguration on January 20, 2025,” they told the New York Court of Appeals.
