An appellate court in New York on Tuesday rejected President-elect Donald Trumpโs plea to delay Fridayโs sentencing in his criminal case involving hush money payments to adult film actress Stormy Daniels.
Associate Justice Ellen Gesmer of the Appellate Division, a mid-level state appeals court, made the decision after holding a hearing on Trumpโs last-ditch effort to block the trial judgeโs ruling on Monday to proceed with the hush money sentencing, scheduled for 10 days before his inauguration.
In his Monday ruling, Justice Juan Merchan rejected a request from Trumpโs lawyers to delay the sentencing while they appealed two of the judgeโs previous rulings upholding the Manhattan juryโs May guilty verdict on 34 felony counts of falsifying business records. The judge called Trumpโs delay request mostly โa repetition of the arguments he has raised numerous times in the past.โ
In scheduling Trumpโs sentencing for Friday, Merchan said he was not inclined to send Trump to prison. The judge said a sentence of unconditional discharge, effectively putting a judgment of guilt on his record without a fine or probation, would be the most practical approach given Trumpโs looming return to the presidency.
In the half-hour hearing over Trumpโs request for a delay on Tuesday afternoon in Manhattan, Gesmer pressed Trump lawyer Todd Blanche on his argument that a sitting presidentโs immunity from prosecution extends to the transition period between winning the election and inauguration.
โDo you have any support for the notion that presidential immunity extends to a president elect?โ Gesmer asked.
Blanche replied, โThere has never been a case like this before, so no.โ
But Blanche raised the prospect of Justice Juan Merchan, the trial judge, imposing a prison sentence that extended past the Jan. 20 inauguration despite the judgeโs indication that he would not do so.
โI donโt find that hypothetical very helpful,โ Gesmer said, asking Blanche to focus on his arguments related to presidential immunity.
Gesmer asked a lawyer for Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Braggโs office, which brought the case, to address Trumpโs argument that the sentencing would interfere with the presidential transition.
Likely No Prison Term
Steven Wu, the state lawyer, said Merchan had addressed those issues by scheduling sentencing before the inauguration, by allowing Trump to appear virtually and by indicating he would not send Trump to prison.
Wu also noted that the sentencing had initially been scheduled for July had been delayed multiple times at Trumpโs request, arguing it was โdisingenuousโ for Trump to now claim the timing of sentencing was impractical. Gesmer appeared to agree.
โIf he was concerned about this issue he couldโve easily had this proceeding go forward in July, in September,โ Gesmer said.
In a one-line written decision issued about a half hour after the hearing ended, Gesmer wrote, โAfter consideration of the papers submitted and the extensive oral argument, (Trumpโs) application for an interim stay is denied.โ
โI Did Nothing Wrongโ
In an apparent reference to Merchan, Trump said a โcrooked judgeโ in New York was complicating a smooth transition.
โRemember, this is a man that said he wants the transition to be smooth,โ Trump told reporters on Tuesday before the hearing began. โWell, you donโt do the kind of things. You donโt have a judge working real hard to try and embarrass you, because I did nothing wrong.โ
The case stemmed from a $130,000 payment that Trumpโs former lawyer Michael Cohen made to adult film actress Stormy Daniels to keep her quiet before the 2016 election about a sexual encounter she said she had a decade earlier with Trump, who denies it. Trump, a Republican, defeated Democrat Hillary Clinton in that election.
Trump Alleges Political Bias
Trump has argued that Bragg, a Democrat, brought the case to harm his 2024 election bid. Bragg has said that his office routinely brings felony falsification of business records charges.
The hush money case made Trump the first U.S. president โ sitting or former โ to be charged with a crime and also the first to be convicted.
Since the verdict, his lawyers have made two unsuccessful attempts to have the case tossed.
Merchan previously rejected their argument that the U.S. Supreme Courtโs July decision in a separate criminal case against Trump that presidents cannot be prosecuted for official acts meant the hush money case must be dismissed. Merchan ruled that the hush money case concerned Trumpโs personal conduct.
After Trump won the November election, his lawyers argued that having the case hang over him while serving as president would impede his ability to govern. Merchan denied that bid, writing that overturning the juryโs verdict would be an affront to the rule of law.
(With inputs from Reuters)