The New York Court of Appeals, the highest court in the state on Thursday declined US President-elect Donald Trump’s request to halt Trump’s sentencing in the hush money case on Friday, just ten days before his swearing-in ceremony.
The trial court is scheduled to issue its sentence against Trump on Friday following his conviction on 34 felony counts of falsifying business records in May. These charges stem from a hush money payment made to adult film actress Stormy Daniels to enhance his electoral prospects during the 2016 presidential election.
Trump’s lawyer while filing the last appeal in the Federal court to halt Trump’s sentencing reasoned that a President is entitled to full immunity from prosecution and sentencing and therefore requested it to be extended to the President-elect.
The Appellate Court judge, Ellen Gesmer denied the application and interrogated his lawyer whether they had any proof that the immunity of the President extended to the President-elect and claimed their reason to be ‘utterly baseless’. Trump was represented by lawyer Todd Blanche who is speculated to become the deputy attorney general in Trump’s administration.
Following Gesmer’s verdict dismissing Trump’s appeal, the President-elect is left with only one option to cease his sentencing by reaching out to the Supreme Court.
However, it seems highly unlikely that any harsh punishment will be given to Trump since the trial court judge overseeing the hush money case, Juan M. Merchan indicated his thoughts of sparing Trump of jail term or any other substantive punishment.
Another tactic used by Trump to halt the sentence was to file an action in the Appeals court against Justice Merchan challenging his decision to uphold Trump’s conviction. Justice Merchan has delayed Trump’s sentencing numerous times. However, it is unlikely that the proceeding for this will start before Trump’s swearing-in as the President.
Justice Merchan, in an 18-page decision issued last week, proposed an unconditional discharge of Trump’s sentence as a rare and lenient alternative to jail or probation.
The sentencing of a President-elect would be a historic event since it would be the first time that a president is convicted for his involvement in criminal offences. Therefore, the case is considered a ‘symbolic proceeding’.
