The Supreme Court declined Thursday to intervene on behalf of President-elect Donald Trump, who’d asked the justices to halt his scheduled Friday sentencing on felony convictions in New York.
The high court rejected the request in a 5-4 decision.
Justices Samuel Alito, Clarence Thomas, Brett Kavanaugh and Neil Gorsuch would have granted Mr. Trump’s request for a stay.
The unsigned order said Mr. Trump is free to pursue a normal appeal, and pointed to the fact he won’t face jail time.
“The burden that sentencing will impose on the president-elect’s responsibilities is relatively insubstantial in light of the trial court’s stated intent to impose a sentence of ‘unconditional discharge’ after a brief virtual hearing,” the order said.
Chief Justice John G. Roberts and Justice Amy Comey Barrett, the latter of whom was appointed by Mr. Trump, sided with the liberal wing of the court.
The development means Mr. Trump is set to face judgment from state Supreme Court Judge Juan Merchan on Friday morning, a remarkable episode in U.S. history and one that will unfold 10 days before Mr. Trump returns to Washington for his inauguration.
Judge Merchan has signaled he will not impose incarceration or probation, given Mr. Trump’s status.
Yet Mr. Trump, who previously served as president from 2017 to 2021, did not want to face the ignominy of a sentencing hearing before his triumphant return to the White House. He wanted the case to be overturned completely.
Mr. Trump’s attorneys said prosecutors infringed on Mr. Trump’s presidential immunity with certain evidence at trial, and that the president-elect should have enjoyed the same protection from criminal prosecution that sitting presidents enjoy. The U.S. Supreme Court and state appellate judges rebuffed their pleas.
Mr. Trump responded late Thursday by railing against Judge Merchan and the “weaponization” of the legal system.
“For the sake and sanctity of the Presidency, I will be appealing this case, and am confident that justice will prevail,” he wrote on Truth Social, the last phrase written in all capital letters.
“The pathetic, dying remnants of the Witch Hunts against me will not distract us as we unite and make America great again!” he continued, again ending by lapsing into capitals.
Manhattan District Alvin Bragg had argued in favor of sentencing Mr. Trump before the inauguration.
“Defendant makes the unprecedented claim that the temporary presidential immunity he will possess in the future fully immunizes him now, weeks before he even takes the oath of office, from all state-court criminal process,” Mr. Bragg told the Supreme Court. “This extraordinary immunity claim is unsupported by any decision from any court.”
Some ex-Trump aides — including lawyer Ty Cobb and Olivia Troye, who worked for Vice President Mike Pence — supported Mr. Bragg in friend-of-the-court briefs. They said Mr. Trump was getting lenient treatment, anyway, and delaying his sentencing would subvert the rule of law.
Providing Mr. Trump “as president-elect a last-minute reprieve would undermine the jury’s verdict and serve as a manifest injustice because it would violate one of our Nation’s most fundamental precepts — that no person is above the law,” they wrote.
A Manhattan jury convicted the former president in May of falsifying business records in an attempt to hide hush money payments to porn actress Stormy Daniels. He was found guilty of all 34 counts.
During the trial, prosecutors said Mr. Trump criminally concealed payments to Ms. Daniels around the 2016 campaign with an intent to violate election laws.
The payments were designed to keep Ms. Daniels quiet about an alleged sexual encounter about a decade earlier in Lake Tahoe. Mr. Trump says the encounter did not happen.
Prosecutors said Mr. Trump paid Ms. Daniels through Michael Cohen and concealed reimbursements to the lawyer in 2017 by misidentifying checks.
Mr. Trump’s lawyers said he was busy running the country and thought he was paying Mr. Cohen for legal services, so his team logged the checks in that manner. They also accused the prosecution of using novel legal theories to mount a political hit job against Mr. Trump’s presidential campaign.
The multi-week trial kept Mr. Trump trapped in a dingy courtroom in lower Manhattan for weeks while the GOP primary unfolded. Mr. Trump turned the courthouse hallway into his personal campaign stage, however, easily winning the party nomination before defeating Vice President Kamala Harris in November.
• Tom Howell Jr. can be reached at thowell@washingtontimes.com.
• Alex Swoyer can be reached at aswoyer@washingtontimes.com.