The New York Court of Appeals, the state’s highest court, denied President-elect Donald Trump’s request to stay his sentence Friday in his criminal case over hush money.
Trump on Wednesday launched a last-minute request to New York’s highest court to stay the hush money case, the same day he also asked the U.S. Supreme Court to halt his sentencing.
Prosecutors from the Manhattan district attorney’s office argued in a document filed Thursday morning, before the court issued its ruling, that Trump’s argument for delaying his sentencing is based on a “completely unfounded” concept of immunity of the president-elect.
In response to Trump’s argument, lawyers for Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg urged the New York Court of Appeals to reject Trump’s request for a delay because an elected president does not benefit from the immunity reserved for the acting president.
“The president-elect, by definition, is not yet the president,” the document said. “Therefore, the President-elect performs no Article II functions under the Constitution, and there are no Article II functions that would be burdened by an ordinary criminal proceeding involving the President-elect.”
Trump is scheduled to be sentenced Friday after he was found guilty in May of 34 felonies for falsifying business records related to a hush payment made to adult film actress Stormy Daniels to improve her electoral prospects in the US presidential election. 2016.
In their presentation Thursday, prosecutors expressed confidence in the strength of their case, saying the jury saw “overwhelming” evidence of Trump’s guilt and criticizing the president-elect’s dismissive demeanor in court.
“And despite the defendant’s past and future service as president, his history, character and condition, and especially his open contempt for the justice system, do not support dismissal,” the document says.
Prosecutors criticized Trump for repeatedly delaying sentencing, leading to the Jan. 10 sentencing date, and exaggerating the harm he would face if the sentencing continued as planned.
The president-elect faces up to four years in prison, but New York Judge Juan Merchán has indicated that he plans to sentence Trump to unconditional freedom (in practice, a stain on Trump’s record, with no prison, fines or parole). in order to respect Trump’s transition efforts and the principle of presidential immunity.
Prosecutors noted in their filing that Merchan intends to sentence Trump to the lowest sentence allowed.
“In fact, if the defendant is ever to be sentenced in these proceedings, the least burdensome time to do so is now, before his inauguration on January 20, 2025,” the document says.
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