Trump asks the Supreme Court to halt sentencing in hush money case.

President-elect Donald Trump has petitioned the US Supreme Court to block a New York state court from sentencing him on criminal charges resulting from hush money paid to a porn performer.
“This court should enter an immediate stay of further proceedings in the New York trial court to prevent grave injustice and harm to the institution of the presidency and the operations of the federal government,” his attorneys stated in a document made public on Wednesday.

A New York appeals court refused his request to postpone his sentence on Friday in New York state court in Manhattan. In Wednesday’s brief, his attorneys requested that the US Supreme Court issue an emergency stay in the case while he pursues an appeal to clarify problems about presidential immunity.

They claimed to have concurrently petitioned the state’s top court for the same emergency relief.

The Supreme Court directed prosecutors to respond to the request by Thursday morning, indicating that the justices may rule fast on the case.

Trump, who won another term in the White House and will take office on January 20, was found guilty by a New York jury of concealing his former lawyer Michael Cohen’s $130,000 payment to adult film actress Stormy Daniels in exchange for her silence before the 2016 election about a sexual encounter she claims the two had.
Trump denies the interaction and any misconduct.

Steven Cheung, Trump’s spokesman, said in a statement that his legal team had requested the Supreme Court “to correct the unjust actions by New York courts and stop the unlawful sentencing.”

A representative for Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg, whose office filed the complaint, stated that prosecutors will react in court filings.

The hush money case made Trump the first serving or former US president to face criminal charges, as well as the first to be convicted.

Since the verdict, his attorneys have made two failed attempts to have the case dismissed.

In setting Trump’s sentencing for Friday, Justice Juan Merchan stated that he was unlikely to condemn Trump to jail and would instead award him an unconditional discharge, which would post a judgment of guilt on Trump’s record without any consequence such as incarceration, a fee, or probation.

Trump’s lawyers have argued that the hush money case should be dismissed in light of the Supreme Court’s landmark July 1 decision, which granted former presidents broad immunity from criminal prosecution for official acts, in a case involving criminal charges stemming from his efforts to reverse his 2020 election loss to Joe Biden.
“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,” the attorney general’s office stated in its brief on Wednesday.

They also claimed that as president-elect, Trump is immune from prosecution “in the brief but crucial period” between his November 5 election and his January 20 inauguration.