Donald Trump launches last-ditch bid to avoid sentencing over hush money criminal conviction
In a last-ditch bid to avoid sentencing over his hush money criminal conviction, Donald Trump has asked the Supreme Court to shut down the case ahead of his inauguration.
World
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Donald Trump has turned to America’s highest court to rescue him from sentencing for his hush money criminal conviction 10 days before he returns to the White House.
After two other appeals were slapped down, the President-elect escalated his effort to shut down the case to the Supreme Court with an emergency application ahead of the sentencing hearing that is scheduled for Friday (local time).
Manhattan Criminal Court Judge Juan Merchan announced last week that he planned to sentence Mr Trump before his inauguration, making him the first convicted felon to be sworn in as the president when he is inaugurated in Washington DC on January 20.
Mr Merchan revealed he did not intend to order the 78-year-old to spend any time behind bars, acknowledging that was no longer a “practicable recommendation” and that he would escape without punishment.
But this did not satisfy the President-elect, who renewed his legal assault on his historic conviction with unsuccessful appeals to Mr Merchan and then a New York appeals court.
In the emergency application to the Supreme Court, Mr Trump’s lawyers called for “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”.
In May last year, six months before the presidential election, the former president was convicted of 34 counts of falsifying business records to conceal a $US130,000 hush money payment to porn star Stormy Daniels.
The jury in Mr Trump’s bombshell trial accepted the case presented by the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office that he covered up the payment which he authorised to prevent Ms Daniels speaking about her claim that they had an affair on the eve of the 2016 election.
Mr Trump has always denied the porn star’s allegation.
He had been due to be sentenced before November’s presidential election – in which he capped an extraordinary political comeback by defeating Vice President Kamala Harris – but his lawyers succeeded in delaying the hearing several times.
While the guilty verdict meant Mr Trump could have been sentenced to up to four years in prison, Judge Merchan said on Friday (local time) he was not intending to “impose any sentence of incarceration”.
“A sentence of unconditional discharge appears to be the most viable solution to ensure finality and allow Defendant to pursue his appellate options,” he said, referring to a sentence that did not include any punishment.
In the wake of Mr Trump’s election victory, his lawyers had petitioned Mr Merchan to dismiss the case entirely, relying on a Supreme Court decision last year which granted sweeping immunity to a sitting president. This was rejected by the judge.
Two federal criminal cases against Mr Trump – over his effort to overturn his 2020 election defeat and his mishandling of classified files – have both been dropped in recent weeks, given the Department of Justice is unable to continue prosecuting a sitting president.
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Originally published as Donald Trump launches last-ditch bid to avoid sentencing over hush money criminal conviction