Former US President Donald Trump sits within the courtroom during a secret money trial in Manhattan Criminal Court on April 26, 2024 in New York.
Michael M. Santiago | Getty Images
AND New York on Monday, a judge denied President-elect Donald Trump’s request to delay Friday’s scheduled sentencing in his New York criminal case involving silence.
The ruling means Trump can have to ask an appeals court to block the ruling if he wants to avoid going to trial 10 days before he’s scheduled to be sworn in as president on the White House for a second non-consecutive term.
On Monday, Trump’s lawyers argued before Manhattan Supreme Court Justice Juan Merchan that the sentencing needs to be mechanically stayed while they appeal his latest decisions within the case.
Merchan rejected this argument.
“This Court has considered defendant’s arguments in support of his motion and finds that, for the most part, they are a repetition of arguments that he has raised repeatedly in the past,” Merchan wrote within the order.
“The Court further finds that the sources cited in the defendant’s motion are, in most cases, distinguishable from the facts or have no legal applicability,” the judge wrote.
The Manhattan district attorney’s office previously urged Merchan to deny Trump’s request to delay sentencing pending an appeal.
The district attorney’s office stated that “there is a substantial public interest in the prompt prosecution and final conclusion of the criminal proceedings – these interests are particularly important in light of the jury’s guilty verdict.”
In May, Trump was convicted of 34 felony counts of falsifying business records in reference to a secret payment in 2016 to porn star Stormy Daniels, shortly before that 12 months’s presidential election.
Last week, Merchan said he was not willing to sentence Trump to prison within the case and in addition suggested he would impose a sentence that didn’t include probation or a effective.
On the identical day, Merchan rejected arguments that he should dismiss the case in light of the U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling that said presidents have presumptive immunity from criminal prosecution for official actions while serving within the White House, and due to the Constitution’s Supremacy Clause .
Monday’s prosecutor’s motion says that because Merchan “already stated this.” [his] intention to impose the bottom possible sentence allowed by law,” Trump “is not going to suffer any prejudice from the conclusion” of the case through a conviction, which would allow him to appeal the verdict.
In a statement Monday, Trump spokesman Steven Cheung said: “Today, President Trump’s legal team took motion to end the wrongful verdict within the Manhattan District Attorney’s witch hunt.”
“The Supreme Court’s historic immunity decision, the New York State Constitution, and other established legal precedent mandate the immediate rejection of this baseless fraud,” Cheung said.
