US president-elect Donald Trump was to be sentenced yesterday, despite his efforts to delay the process, although the judge has indicated that Trump would not face prison.
Trump had made an 11th-hour plea for a suspension of the criminal proceedings to the US Supreme Court after a New York State appeals court dismissed his effort to have the hearing delayed and the state’s top court declined to act on the request.
However, the Supreme Court ruled that the sentencing could proceed.
Photo: AFP
Trump in May last year was convicted on 34 counts of falsifying business records, but it was expected that he would receive an unconditional discharge. The 78-year-old had potentially faced up to four years in prison.
Trump was expected to attend the sentencing virtually.
In the trial, witnesses testified that Trump had fraudulently covered up illicit payments to porn star Stormy Daniels in an effort to stop her disclosing a tryst ahead of the 2016 presidential election, which he ultimately won.
Prosecutors opposed the effort to stave off sentencing, 10 days before Trump is due to be sworn in for a second term, arguing that it was wrong for the apex court to hear the case when the mogul still had avenues of appeal to pursue in New York.
“This court lacks jurisdiction over a state court’s management of an ongoing criminal trial when defendant has not exhausted his state-law remedies,” the prosecution told the Supreme Court on Thursday.
Trump’s counsel had argued that sentencing should be postponed while he appeals his conviction, but New York state Associate Justice Ellen Gesmer rejected that on Tuesday.
Trump’s lawyers said the immunity from prosecution granted to a US president should be extended to a president-elect, but Gesmer also denied those arguments.
His attorneys had sought to have the case dismissed based on the Supreme Court’s landmark ruling last year, which said that former presidents have sweeping immunity from prosecution for a range of official acts committed while in office.
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