New York's highest appeals court declines to block Trump's sentencing in hush money case

One judge of the New York Court of Appeals issued a brief order declining to grant a hearing to Trump's legal team. (AP photo)

New York's highest court declined to block Donald Trump's upcoming sentencing in his hush money case on Thursday, leaving the US Supreme Court as the president-elect's likely last option to prevent the hearing from taking place on Friday.

One judge of the New York Court of Appeals issued a brief order declining to grant a hearing to Trump's legal team.

Trump has asked the Supreme Court to call off Friday’s sentencing in the hush money case. His lawyers turned to the nation’s highest court on Thursday after New York courts refused to postpone the sentencing by Judge Juan M. Merchan, who presided over Trump’s trial and conviction last May on 34 felony counts of falsifying business records. Trump has denied wrongdoing.

In a filing to the top New York court, Trump’s attorneys had said Merchan and the state’s mid-level appellate court both “erroneously failed” to stop the sentencing, arguing that the Constitution requires an automatic pause as they appeal the judge’s ruling upholding the verdict.

While Merchan has indicated he will not impose jail time, fines or probation, Trump’s lawyers argued a felony conviction would still have intolerable side effects, including distracting him as he prepares to take office.

Trump’s attorneys have argued that the Manhattan trial violated last summer’s Supreme Court ruling giving Trump broad immunity from prosecution over acts he took as president. At the least, they have said, the sentencing should be delayed while their appeals play out on the immunity issue.

Judges in New York have found that Trump’s convictions related to personal matters rather than official acts.

Trump’s attorneys called the case politically motivated, and said that the sentencing threatens to disrupt the Republican’s presidential transition as he prepares to return to the presidency on Jan. 20.

Sentencing Trump now would be a “grave injustice,” his attorney D. John Sauer wrote. Sauer is also Trump’s pick to be solicitor general, who represents the government before the high court.

The emergency motion to the U.S. Supreme Court was submitted to Justice Sonia Sotomayor, who hears emergency appeals from New York.