Former U.S. President Donald Trump sits in the courtroom during his hush money trial at Manhattan criminal court on April 26, 2024 in New York City.
Michael M. Santiago | Getty Images
A New York judge on Monday denied a request by President-elect Donald Trump to delay his scheduled sentencing Friday in his New York criminal hush money case.
The ruling means that Trump will have to get an appeals court to block his sentencing if he wants to avoid appearing for the proceeding, 10 days before he is due to be sworn in as president for a second nonconsecutive term in the White House.
Trump’s lawyers earlier Monday had argued to Manhattan Supreme Court Judge Juan Merchan that the sentencing should be automatically put on hold pending their appeal of recent decisions he made in the case.
Merchan rejected that argument.
“This Court has considered Defendant’s arguments in support of his motion and finds that they are for the most part, a repetition of the arguments he has raised numerous times in the past,” Merchan wrote in a decision.
“Further, this Court finds that the authorities relied upon in the instant motion by the Defendant are for the most part, factually distinguishable from the actual record or legally inapplicable,” the judge wrote.
The Manhattan District Attorney’s Office earlier had urged Merchan to deny Trump’s request to delay his sentencing pending appeal.
The district attorney’s office said there is a “strong public interest in prompt prosecution and the finality of criminal proceedings — interests that are particularly salient here in light of the jury’s guilty verdict.”
Trump was convicted of 34 felony counts of falsifying business records in May, related to a 2016 hush money payment to porn star Stormy Daniels shortly before the presidential election that year.
Merchan last week said that he was not inclined to sentence Trump to jail in the case, and also suggested he would impose a sentence that does not include either probation or a fine.
On the same day, Merchan rejected arguments that he should toss out the case in light of a U.S. Supreme Court ruling that said presidents have presumptive immunity from criminal prosecution for official acts while serving in the White House, and because of the Constitution’s Supremacy Clause.
The prosecutor’s motion on Monday said that because Merchan “has already stated [his] intent to impose the lowest possible sentence authorized by law,” Trump “will suffer no prejudice from the conclusion of” the case by being sentenced, which would allow him to appeal his conviction.
In a statement Monday, Trump’s spokesman Steven Cheung said, “Today, President Trump’s legal team moved to stop the unlawful sentencing in the Manhattan D.A.’s Witch Hunt.”
“The Supreme Court’s historic decision on Immunity, the state constitution of New York, and other established legal precedent mandate that this meritless hoax be immediately dismissed,” Cheung said.