New York’s Appeal Court on Thursday rejected U.S President-elect, Donald Trump’s request to halt his sentencing scheduled for January 10 in the hush money case.
Trump petitioned the appeal court after the Manhattan court, on Tuesday, rejected his plea to delay sentencing in his criminal conviction, which comes ten days before his inauguration.
Trump’s fate now lies with the Supreme Court which will deliver its verdict on Friday on whether the New York state court can proceed with his sentencing.
His legal team had on Wednesday argued that the case should be dismissed, citing the Supreme Court’s July 1 ruling, which granted former presidents broad immunity from criminal prosecution for official acts.
“By repeatedly admitting evidence of President Trump’s official acts during trial, the trial court violated the principles of presidential immunity that this court enumerated,” Trump’s lawyers wrote.
But the Manhattan District Attorney, Alvin Bragg, whose office prosecuted the case, filed a response to his appeal.
“Defendant now asks this court to take the extraordinary step of intervening in a pending state criminal trial to prevent the scheduled sentencing from taking place – before final judgment has been entered by the trial court, and before any direct appellate review of defendant’s conviction.
“There is no basis for such intervention,” Bragg’s office wrote on Thursday.
Trump was convicted in May on 34 felony counts of falsifying business records having made a $130,000 payment through his former personal lawyer in 2016 to silence adult film actress, Stormy Daniels, who alleged she had a sexual encounter with Trump a decade earlier—a claim he consistently denied.
His sentencing was originally scheduled for July 11, 2024, but was postponed twice at the request of his lawyers.
Justice Juan Merchan of the New York state court indicated that he might lean towards a sentence that would amount to just closing the case without any real punishment, but the sentencing may leave a stain on Trump.