Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg on Thursday urged the US Supreme Court to reject incoming President Donald Trump’s request to block sentencing in his hush-money case.
DAILY POST reports that Trump is to be sentenced on Friday after being convicted by a New York jury in May of 34 counts of falsifying business records to cover up a hush-money payment to porn star Stormy Daniels.
The 78-year-old, who is to be sworn in as president on January 20, filed an emergency application with the Supreme Court on Wednesday, seeking to halt his sentencing after a New York state appeals court dismissed his bid to have the hearing delayed.
It was gathered that his lawyers have made several legal manoeuvres in an effort to fend off the sentencing, which the judge in the case, Juan Merchan, has already indicated will not result in jail time.
“This court should enter an immediate stay of further proceedings in the New York trial court to prevent grave injustice and harm to the institution of the presidency and the operations of the federal government,” they wrote in their application to the Supreme Court.
The lawyers have claimed that the immunity from prosecution granted to a sitting president should be extended to a president-elect.
However, Bragg rejected their arguments in his response, saying that Trump was a private citizen when he was charged, tried, and convicted for conduct that he concedes is wholly unofficial.
“Defendant makes the unprecedented claim that the temporary presidential immunity he will possess in the future fully immunises him now, weeks before he even takes the oath of office, from all state-court criminal process,” he said.
Bragg also said the Supreme Court lacks jurisdiction over a state court’s management of an ongoing criminal trial, and preventing sentencing would be an extraordinary step by the top court.
In their filing to the New York appeals court, Trump’s legal team had contended that sentencing should be postponed while the former president appeals his conviction, but Associate Justice Ellen Gesmer rejected that on Tuesday.
Merchan said in a filing last week he was leaning towards giving Trump an unconditional discharge that would not carry jail time or probation.
The sentence would nevertheless see Trump entering the White House as the first convicted felon to serve as US president.
Trump potentially faced up to four years in prison, but legal experts—even before he won the November presidential election—did not expect Merchan to incarcerate him.
Trump was certified as the winner of the 2024 presidential election on Monday, four years after his supporters rioted at the US Capitol as he sought to overturn his 2020 defeat.
Hush money: US prosecutor urges Supreme Court against blocking Trump’s sentencing