Trump plays his last cards to stop his sentencing: Going to the Supreme Court
Lawyers for President-elect Donald Trump on Wednesday asked the US Supreme Court to halt his hush-money sentencing, currently scheduled for Friday morning.
Lawyers for Donald Trump have asked the US Supreme Court to block the president-elect’s Manhattan hush-money sentencing, currently set for Friday.
Justice Sonia Sotomayor is assigned to handle emergency applications from New York for the court.
Sotomayor, nominated by President Barack Obama in 2009, issued a scathing dissent of the high court’s July 1 opinion granting presidents broad immunity from prosecution. The 525-page application filed by Trump on Wednesday morning refers to presidential immunity more than 300 times, and argues that it voids his conviction and indictment.
Still, the full panel of justices would decide Trump’s application; he would need a majority 5/9 vote to prevail.
Trump’s 11th-hour bid to avoid sentencing comes one day after a New York appellate judge nixed a similar stay, rejecting arguments by a defense lawyer that presidential immunity from prosecution extends to presidents-elect.
Defense lawyers on Wednesday morning simultaneously filed an application with the state’s highest appellate court seeking to block Trump’s sentencing.
The nation’s highest court has asked prosecutors with the office of Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg to file response papers by 10 a.m. Thursday. A spokesperson for Bragg declined comment, saying, “We will respond in court papers.”
SCOTUS can decide any time after Bragg’s response whether the sentencing happens as scheduled.
Trump is seeking “to correct the unjust actions by New York courts and stop the unlawful sentencing in the Manhattan D.A.’s Witch Hunt,” Trump spokesman Steven Cheung said. “The Supreme Court’s historic decision on Immunity, the Constitution, and established legal precedent mandate that this meritless hoax be immediately dismissed.”
