N.Y. Prosecutors Urge Supreme Court to Let Trumps Sentencing Proceed
New York prosecutors on Thursday urged the U.S.Supreme Court to deny President-elect Donald J.
Trump’s last-ditch effort to halt his criminal sentencing, in a prelude to a much-anticipated ruling that will determine whether he enters the White House as a felon.In a filing a day before the scheduled sentencing, prosecutors from the Manhattan district attorney’s office characterized Mr.Trump’s emergency application to the Supreme Court as premature, noting that he had not yet exhausted his state court appeals.The prosecutors, who secured Mr.
Trump’s conviction last year on charges that he falsified records to cover up a sex scandal that endangered his 2016 presidential campaign, implored the Supreme Court to let the sentencing proceed.“There is no basis for such intervention,” the prosecutors wrote.“There is a compelling public interest in proceeding to sentencing,” they added, and emphasized that “the sanctity of a jury verdict and the deference that must be accorded to it are bedrock principles in our Nation’s jurisprudence.”After a series of unsuccessful maneuvers in New York State courts, Mr.
Trump’s fate rests in the hands of a friendlier audience: a Supreme Court with a 6-to-3 conservative majority that includes three justices Mr.Trump appointed.
Five are needed to grant a stay.Their decision, coming little more than a week before the inauguration, will test the influence Mr.Trump wields over a court that has previously appeared sympathetic to his legal troubles.
In July, the court granted former presidents broad immunity for official acts, stymying a federal criminal case against Mr.Trump for trying to overturn the 2020 election.
(After Mr.Trump won the 2024 election, prosecutors shut down that case.)The revelation that Mr.
Trump spoke this week by phone with one of the conservative justices, Samuel A.Alito Jr., has fueled concerns that he has undue sway over the court.Justice Alito said he was delivering a job reference for a fo...