President-elect Donald Trump’s eleventh-hour attempt to block his Friday sentencing in his New York hush-money case was rejected Thursday by the Supreme Court in a narrow 5-4 ruling.
Justice Amy Coney Barrett, who was appointed by Trump to the high court in 2020, cast the deciding vote along with the court’s liberals and Chief Justice John Roberts.
The president-elect filed an emergency request with the Supreme Court Wednesday hoping to delay his Jan. 10 sentencing, arguing that it would damage “the institution of the Presidency and the operations of the federal government.”
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Justice Clarence Thomas, Justice Neil Gorsuch, Justice Brett Kavanaugh, and Justice Samuel Alito all said they would have granted Trump’s request. However, Roberts and Barrett opted to side against Trump and joined the court’s remaining three justices, who were all appointed by Democratic presidents.
“The alleged evidentiary violations at President-elect Trump’s state-court trial can be addressed in the ordinary course on appeal,” Chief Justice Roberts and Justices Barrett, Sonia Sotomayor, Elena Kagan, and Ketanji Brown Jackson said in a one-paragraph statement explaining their decision.
“The burden that sentencing will impose on the President-elect’s responsibilities is relatively insubstantial in light of the trial court’s stated intent to impose a sentence of ‘unconditional discharge,’” they added, referring to a previous statement by Judge Juan Merchan—who oversaw Trump’s trial—that he did not plan to give the president-elect jail time or probation.
Trump thanked the Supreme Court following their ruling—but shot another barb at Judge Merchan in a post on his Truth Social platform.
“I appreciate the time and effort of the United States Supreme Court in trying to remedy the great injustice done to me by the highly conflicted ‘Acting Justice,’ who should not have been allowed to try this case,” Trump wrote in a Truth Social post Thursday evening, addressing the Supreme Court’s decision and taking a dig at Judge Merchan (who is the Acting Justice of the New York State Supreme Court).
“Every Legal Scholar stated, unequivocally, that this is a case that should never have been brought. There was no case against me. In other words, I am innocent of all of the Judge’s made up, fake charges,” Trump added while proceeding to detail his plan to appeal his case and critiquing the many “witch hunts” against him.
The president-elect’s sentencing hearing is slated for Friday at 9:30 a.m, just 10 days before his upcoming inauguration.
Trump was found guilty on 34 felony counts of falsifying business records in May. Prosecutors alleged that he had partaken in a “scheme” to heighten his chances of winning the 2016 presidential election through a hush-money payment to adult film actress Stormy Daniels, fabricating business records along the way to cover up his tracks.
Despite several attempts from Trump’s attorneys to toss out his conviction, including arguing that he was protected by presidential immunity, Judge Merchan swatted their claims at every turn and ordered the president-elect to appear, either in person or virtually, for a sentencing in New York on Jan. 10.
Hours before his lawyers filed his emergency request on Tuesday, Trump spoke with Justice Alito on the phone—though the conservative jurist insisted that they “did not discuss” anything to do with the emergency application.
“William Levi, one of my former law clerks, asked me to take a call from President-elect Trump regarding his qualifications to serve in a government position,” Justice Alito told ABC News Wednesday. “We did not discuss the emergency application he filed today, and indeed, I was not even aware at the time of our conversation that such an application would be filed.
“We also did not discuss any other matter that is pending or might in the future come before the Supreme Court or any past Supreme Court decisions involving the President-elect,” he added.
Justice Alito voted in favor of Trump’s emergency request Thursday.
