The Supreme Court rejects Trump's request to halt the sentencing by a New York court

2025-01-10 08:22:00, Kosova & Bota CNA

The Supreme Court rejects Trump's request to halt the sentencing by a New

The United States Supreme Court on Thursday rejected President-elect Donald Trump's request to halt the sentencing of a New York state court for felony counts of falsifying business records.

The court in a 5-4 decision denied a last-minute request by Mr. Trump's lawyers to delay the sentencing, scheduled for Friday at 9:30 a.m. in New York state court in Manhattan. Chief Justice John Roberts and his conservative colleague Amy Coney Barrett joined three liberal members of the court - Sonia Sotomayor, Elena Kagan and Ketanji Brown Jackson - in voting against Mr Trump's request.

The judge in Mr. Trump's case, Juan Merchan, said last week that he was not inclined to sentence the Republican president-elect to prison and would likely release him without conditions. This means that the decision to find him guilty of the criminal charges will be part of the court docket, but he will not receive any jail time, fines or probation.

Four conservative justices — Clarence Thomas, Samuel Alito, Neil Gorsuch and Brett Kavanaugh — voted in favor of Mr. Trump's request.

The Supreme Court took up Mr Trump's request to stay the sentence after it was rejected by the New York state Supreme Court on Thursday.

Former President Trump was found guilty by a jury on May 30, 2024 of 34 counts of falsifying business records to conceal a $130,000 payment to silence a pornographic actress. , Stormy Daniels, just before the 2016 presidential election.

Ms Daniels claims she had a sexual relationship with Mr Trump in 2006 after meeting him at a golf tournament in Lake Tahoe. Former President Trump has repeatedly denied this claim.

Prosecutors say the payment to Ms. Daniels was part of a broader scheme to buy the silence of people who could go public during the election campaign with embarrassing stories of extramarital affairs. Prosecutors said Mr. Trump's former lawyer, Michael Cohen, made the payments to Ms. Daniels and that he was later reimbursed by Mr. Trump, whose firm booked the payments as legal expenses.

Falsifying business data is punishable by up to four years in prison. Mr. Trump is the first former American president to be found guilty of a criminal offense./ Voa