Donald Trump to be sentenced Friday in hush money case

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President-elect Donald Trump was thwarted Monday in his attempt to indefinitely postpone this week’s sentencing in his hush money case, as his lawyers continue their bid to appeal the ruling that upheld the verdict.

If the ruling stands, he will be the first president to take office after being convicted of crimes.

Manhattan Judge Juan M. Merchán ordered Friday’s sentencing to proceed as scheduled, rejecting arguments by Trump’s lawyers who said it should be stayed while they ask a state appeals court to overturn his decision to uphold the conviction.

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Trump can still ask the appeals court to intervene and order a stay. Otherwise, he will be sentenced just over a week before he takes up a second term.

Trump’s lawyers have told Merchan that if he is sentenced, he will appear by video rather than in person. The judge had given him that option given the demands of the presidential transition process.

Last Friday, Merchan denied Trump’s attempt to overturn the verdict on the basis of his impending return to the White House, but said he is not likely to sentence him to prison for his conviction on 34 felony counts of falsifying business records.

Trump wrote in Truth Social after Merchan ruled that “it would be the end of the presidency as we know it.”

Trump’s lawyers, who are also challenging Merchan’s earlier refusal to dismiss the case on presidential immunity grounds, filed appeal paperwork Monday afternoon in the appellate division. The arguments have not been programmed.

They did not ask the court to suspend Trump’s sentence. Furthermore, they argued to Merchan that the appeal should trigger an automatic suspension of the proceedings, but if not, he should do it himself, an idea he rejected.

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The Manhattan district attorney’s office urged Merchan to proceed as planned “given the strong public interest in a speedy prosecution and the finality of criminal proceedings.”

Prosecutors blamed Trump for pushing his sentence to the brink of his second term by repeatedly pushing to postpone his sentencing, originally scheduled for July.
“You should not now be heard complaining about the damages caused by the delays you caused,” they wrote in a court filing Monday afternoon.

“Today, President Trump’s legal team took action to stop the illegal sentencing in the Manhattan District Attorney’s witch hunt,” said Trump spokesman Steven Cheung. “The Supreme Court’s landmark Immunity decision, the New York State Constitution, and other established legal precedents demand that this baseless hoax be dismissed immediately.”

Any delay in sentencing could run out time to close the case before Trump’s second term begins on January 20.

If the sentence is not handed down before Trump is sworn in, waiting until he leaves office in 2029 “may become the only viable option,” Merchan said in his ruling.

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If the sentence is handed down as scheduled Friday, Trump’s lawyers argued, he will appeal the verdict while in office and will be “forced to deal with criminal proceedings for years to come.” They raised an unlikely scenario in which, if Trump wins his appeal, he could face another criminal trial while in office.

In upholding the verdict and rejecting Trump’s dismissal attempts, Merchan wrote that the interests of justice would only be served by “giving finality to this matter” through sentencing. He said sentencing Trump to unconditional release (no jail time, fine or probation) “seems to be the most viable solution.”

Whenever he is sentenced, Trump will have the opportunity to speak, as will his lawyers and prosecutors. You can only appeal the verdict after you have been sentenced.

The charges involved an alleged scheme to conceal a money payment to porn actress Stormy Daniels in the final weeks of Trump’s 2016 campaign to prevent her from going public with claims that she had had sexual relations with him years earlier. He says his story is false and that he did nothing wrong.

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The case centered on how Trump justified reimbursing his then-personal attorney Michael Cohen, who had made the payment to Daniels. The conviction carried the possibility of receiving penalties ranging from a fine or probation to four years in prison.

Cohen, a key prosecution witness who had previously called for Trump to be jailed, said that “based on all the intervening circumstances” Merchan’s decision to sentence Trump without punishment “is both judicious and appropriate.”

Trump’s sentencing was initially scheduled for July 11 and was later postponed twice at the request of his lawyers. After Trump’s election on Nov. 5, Merchan delayed sentencing again so the defense and prosecution could weigh in on the future of the case.

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