(The Center Square) – President-elect Donald Trump asked the U.S. Supreme Court on Wednesday to prevent a New York judge from going forward with a sentencing date before Trump returns to the White House.
Defense attorneys argued that sentencing Trump would harm “the institution of the Presidency and the operations of the federal government” in a Wednesday morning court filing.
“Most fundamentally, forcing President Trump to defend a criminal case and appear for a criminal sentencing hearing at the apex of the Presidential transition creates a constitutionally intolerable risk of disruption to national security and America’s vital interests,” Trump’s lawyers wrote.
Trump turned to the U.S. Supreme Court after Judge Juan Merchan denied his request for a stay in the case pending an appeal. Merchan said Trump’s recycled arguments wouldn’t stop his sentencing, which is set for Friday in New York, 10 days before Trump’s inauguration in Washington D.C.
Trump’s defense team asked the Supreme Court to rule that the case should not go forward because Trump is protected by presidential immunity. Merchan previously ruled the high court’s decision didn’t apply in the case because Trump’s acts were unofficial.
In May 2024, a Manhattan jury convicted Trump of 34 counts of falsifying business records for disguising hush money payments to an adult film actress as legal costs ahead of the 2016 election. Under New York state law, falsifying business records in the first degree is a Class E felony with a maximum sentence of four years in prison.
Merchan wrote last week that Trump wouldn’t face jail or prison time. Merchan’s ruling said “the court’s inclination to not impose any sentence of incarceration” since voters elected Trump anyway.
Trump has repeatedly said his political opponents coordinated the criminal cases against him.
Federal prosecutors have moved to end two criminal cases against Trump – the election interference case in Washington D.C. and the classified documents case in Florida.
