Former US President Donald Trump, along with his attorney Todd Blanche, speaks to the media as he arrives for his criminal trial for allegedly concealing hush money payments at Manhattan Criminal Court on May 30, 2024 in New York City.
Michael M. Santiago | Via Reuters
The US Supreme Court on Thursday rejected a request by President-elect Donald Trump to halt proceedings in his criminal money laundering case in New York, clearing the way for his sentencing on Friday morning.
The 5-4 decision came hours after New York state’s highest appeals court refused to delay Trump’s sentencing.
Justices Samuel Alito, Clarence Thomas, Neil Gorsuch and Brett Kavanaugh would have granted Trump’s request for an emergency stay, the court said in a brief order.
The majority determined that Trump’s conviction would impose a “relatively insignificant” burden on his presidential responsibilities, since he is expected to receive a sentence that does not require an actual sentence, the order said.
Those five justices — with Chief Justice John Roberts and Amy Coney Barrett joined by liberals Sonia Sotomayor, Elena Kagan and Ketanji Brown Jackson — were also unmoved by Trump’s arguments about the use of certain evidence during his criminal trial.
Those alleged evidentiary violations “may be addressed in the ordinary course on appeal,” the majority ruled, according to the order.
Trump was convicted last May in state court in Manhattan of 34 counts of falsifying business records in connection with a $130,000 hush money payment to porn star Stormy Daniels before the 2016 presidential election.
Trump’s lawyers argued in Wednesday’s Supreme Court filing that all further proceedings should be stayed while the president-elect appeals the guilty verdicts in New York.
The case must be stayed to “prevent grave injustice and damage to the institution of the Presidency and the operations of the federal government,” they wrote in the 51-page filing.
They argued that Trump, as president-elect, is immune from prosecution. New York District Court Judge Juan Merchan dismissed the claim.
They also argued that the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office violated Trump’s immunity privileges by using evidence of his official presidential acts during the hush money trial.
The Supreme Court last July greatly expanded the scope of presidential immunity when it ruled that former presidents enjoy “presumptive immunity” for all their official acts in office.
Prosecutors for Manhattan DA Alvin Bragg responded earlier Thursday that there is “no basis” for the Supreme Court to intervene in the case.
The pool of lawyers for the president-elect includes several who have been tapped for top roles in the incoming administration’s Justice Department.
An appeals court in New York and the state’s highest court had denied Trump’s bid to stop his sentencing hearing Friday morning.
Merchan had already delayed Trump’s sentencing multiple times, both before and after the Nov. 5 presidential election.
The judge is expected to hand down an “unconditional release,” meaning Trump will receive no jail time, probation, fines or other conditions.
On Wednesday afternoon, ABC News first reported that Trump spoke with conservative Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito a day before the president-elect asked the court for an immediate stay.
Alito confirmed that the Tuesday afternoon call took place, but said in a statement that the case of hush money did not come up.
“We did not discuss the emergency request that he made today, and indeed, I was not even aware at the time of our conversation that such a request would be made,” Alito said.
— CNBC’s Dan Mangan contributed to this report.
