Trump asks US Supreme Court to stay sentence in New York hush-money case | Donald Trump News

The president-elect will be sentenced in a New York criminal trial 10 days before starting a second term.

United States President-elect Donald Trump has asked the Supreme Court to temporarily halt his criminal trial in New York related to the payment of secret money to an elderly movie star.

The court's decision issued on Wednesday comes two days before Trump is to be sentenced in the case.

Trump was convicted in May of last year on 34 counts of falsifying business records, which prosecutors say Trump committed before the 2016 presidential election to cover up a potentially damaging political scandal.

Last week, Judge Juan Merchan ordered that the sentence be carried out on Friday, ten days before Trump takes office.

In Supreme Court filings, Trump's lawyers asked for an immediate suspension of the sentence “to protect the injustice and damage to the institution of the Office of the President and the operation of the federal government”.

Such a stay would provide time for Trump to continue his appeals in the case. The Supreme Court ordered the prosecutors to respond to the request on Thursday.

Trump's lawyers say a Supreme Court ruling last year granting the president immunity from criminal prosecution means some evidence should not have been presented in the case.

They pushed for the sentence to be handed down.

The transfer of the case to the Supreme Court – the US's highest court, with a 6-3 majority, including three Trump appointees – comes after two lower courts rejected Trump's request for a stay.

Historical certainty

The New York case made Trump the first president in American history to be impeached. He is expected to re-enter office as the first president to be a convicted felon.

Trump has also been charged with crimes in three other cases: One federal charge related to efforts to subvert the 2020 election; one federal lawsuit related to the concealment and collection of classified White House documents; and one lawsuit in Georgia related to efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 election there.

However, Trump's election victory was the death knell for both cases, and the Justice Department's long-standing policy prohibits the prosecution of sitting presidents.

US special counsel Jack Smith continued to dismiss both cases following Trump's victory.

The future of the Georgia case is also uncertain, with the state's appeals court recently removing the top prosecutor. While a federal impeachment is not subject to the same limitations as a federal impeachment, it seems unlikely that it will move forward while Trump is in office.

Trump's victory in the 2024 election has also raised serious questions about how his New York sentence will be affected.

However, in court filings, Judge Merchan signed off on giving Trump an “unconditional release,” meaning his conviction will stand, but he won't face jail time, fines or charges.