New York’s top court denies Trump’s bid to halt sentencing

NEW YORK — New York's top court rejected on Thursday Donald Trump's request to halt the US president-elect's sentencing for his conviction on criminal charges stemming from hush money paid to a porn star, with a decision on a possible delay now in the hands of the US Supreme Court.

The state court's decision was a setback for Trump, who now must pin his hopes of freezing the case at the nation's top judicial body, where his lawyers have made a similar emergency bid to avoid the sentencing, set for Friday at 9:30 a.m. (1430 GMT) in a Manhattan court.

Manhattan prosecutors made a filing at the Supreme Court on Thursday morning, opposing Trump's bid for a stay.

"Defendant now asks this court to take the extraordinary step of intervening in a pending state criminal trial to prevent the scheduled sentencing from taking place—before final judgment has been entered by the trial court, and before any direct appellate review of defendant's conviction. There is no basis for such intervention," Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg's office wrote in a filing.

Trump has asked for proceedings in the criminal case to stop as he seeks an appeal to resolve questions of presidential immunity following a Supreme Court ruling last July that granted former presidents broad immunity from criminal prosecution for their official acts.

The sentencing hearing is set for 10 days before Trump is due to be sworn in for his second term as president. Any substantial delay would likely mean Trump would not be sentenced before his Jan. 20 inauguration.

Trump was found guilty last May of 34 counts of falsifying business records to cover up a $130,000 payment to porn star Stormy Daniels in exchange for her silence before the 2016 US election about a sexual encounter she has said she had with Trump a decade earlier, which he has denied. Prosecutors have said the payment was designed help Trump's chances in the 2016 election, when he defeated Democrat Hillary Clinton.

Trump is the first former US president to be criminally prosecuted and the first former president convicted of a crime.

Trump has denied any wrongdoing.

The trial judge in Trump's case, Justice Juan Merchan, said last week he was not inclined to sentence the president-elect to prison and would likely grant him unconditional discharge. This would place a guilty judgment on Trump's record, but would not impose custody, a fine or probation.

Trump's lawyers have argued that the hush money case should be dismissed in light of the Supreme Court's landmark July 1 ruling. They contend that prosecutors improperly admitted evidence of Trump's official acts during the trial. They also argue that, as president-elect, Trump is immune from prosecution during the period between his November election victory and his inauguration.

In their filing on Thursday to the Supreme Court, the New York prosecutors said that "all of the evidence defendant challenged in his post-trial motion either concerned unofficial conduct that is not subject to any immunity, or is a matter of public record that is not subject to preclusion, as the trial court correctly held."

As to Trump's argument that he is immune as president-elect, the prosecutors said this "extraordinary immunity claim is unsupported by any decision from any court."

"It is axiomatic that there is only one president at a time," they added.

In the 6-3 July ruling authored by Chief Justice John Roberts, the Supreme Court said immunity for former presidents is "absolute" with respect to their "core constitutional powers," and a former president has "at least a presumptive immunity" for "acts within the outer perimeter of his official responsibility," meaning prosecutors face a high legal bar to overcome that presumption.

Merchan in December rejected Trump's immunity argument, finding that the hush money case dealt with Trump's personal conduct, not his official acts as president.

In urging the justices to halt Trump's sentencing, his lawyers argued as president-elect, Trump is immune from prosecution "in the brief but crucial period" between his November election victory and his inauguration. — Reuters