The U.S. Supreme Court announced a ruling, denying President-elect Trump’s request to halt his upcoming sentencing in the controversial “hush money” case led by Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg. This decision saw Chief Justice John Roberts and Amy Coney Barrett joining forces with the court’s liberal Justices—Sonia Sotomayor, Elena Kagan, and Ketanji Brown Jackson—in rejecting the motion. Trump had filed an urgent appeal to the Supreme Court on Wednesday, aiming to stop his January 10 sentencing set by Manhattan Judge Juan Merchan, which falls just weeks before inauguration day.
What a backstab ruling from Amy Coney Barrett – Â siding with Democrats in opposition of Trump.
The official order from the court stated that “The application for stay presented to Justice Sotomayor and by her referred to the Court is denied for, inter alia, the following reasons.” It highlighted that any alleged evidence issues from Trump’s state-court trial could be addressed during a regular appeal process. Additionally, it pointed out that the burden of sentencing on Trump’s presidential duties was minimal since the trial court intended only an unconditional discharge after a brief virtual session.
Interestingly, Justices Thomas, Alito, Gorsuch, and Kavanaugh were in favor of granting Trump’s request. However, without securing five votes needed for a delay, it became apparent that Chief Justice Roberts and Amy Coney Barrett sided with their liberal colleagues in denying Trump’s application. Consequently, Trump’s sentencing is expected to proceed as planned with him appearing virtually at 9:30 a.m. on Friday—a detail confirmed by Fox News.
Trump faced conviction on 34 counts of “falsifying business records,” a case surrounded by claims of political bias and selective prosecution. To elevate what would typically be considered misdemeanor bookkeeping errors to felony charges against Trump, DA Bragg argued that Trump conspired to falsify records related to payments made to adult film star Stormy Daniels to hide another crime. Notably, this supposed underlying crime was never identified by Bragg’s office. Moreover, Judge Juan Merchan told jurors they didn’t need consensus on what this unidentified crime might have been.