New York: President-elect Donald Trump will face a local judge here Friday in the hush money case after the Supreme Court rejected his emergency appeal to stop the criminal proceedings.
A divided court ruled Thursday evening that the sentencing will not interfere with his work as its impact on his responsibilities “is relatively insubstantial” and allowed it to go forward.
Judge Juan Merchan has indicated that he will not impose a prison term on Trump, who was found guilty by a jury of business fraud for listing money paid to a porn star as legal expenses.
He also allowed Trump to appear remotely and said he would give him a “conditional discharge”, which would carry no penalty beyond branding him a convicted criminal.
Vice President Kamala Harris and her supporters had tried to capitalise on the conviction highlighting it in their campaign.
But the voters ignored it and elected Trump, rejecting her, and the sentencing would be a final chance to humiliate him 10 days before he takes office.
Trump’s lawyer Michael Cohen paid porn star Stormy Daniels $130,000 before his 2016 election to buy her silence when she claimed to have had a sexual encounter with Trump.
Trump reimbursed the lawyer, and the payments were shown as legal expenses, which the prosecutor said was a criminal fraud and the jury accepted it.
Trump denied her claim of a tryst and said he made the payment to avoid embarrassment to his family.
Local prosecutor Alvin Bragg, who was elected to the position as a Democrat, made each of the checks he wrote into separate criminal offences to pump up the convictions to 34.
The three liberal Supreme Court justices were joined by Chief Justice John Roberts and Trump appointee Amy Coney Barrett to deliver the majority verdict, 5 to 4.
Trump took a conciliatory attitude towards the Supreme Court justices while lashing out at Merchan.
He wrote on Truth Social, “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”.
He called Merchan a “highly political and corrupt judge” and complained that the justice system had been weaponised against him.
The judge and state appeals court rejected Trump’s claim that an earlier Supreme Court ruling on presidential immunity from prosecution applied to him.
They said the ruling did not apply in this case as it was a personal matter preceding his presidency.
One of the Supreme Court justices in the minority who ruled for him, Samuel Alito, had spoken to Trump Tuesday creating a controversy.
Alito said that they had not discussed the case but had given a job reference for a former law clerk.
