Trump to be sentenced on Friday in hush money case, US Supreme Court declines to delay sentencing

However, the trial judge Justice Juan Merchan, who is overseeing Trump’s hush money case said last week that he was not inclined to imprison the president-elect but rather grant him unconditional discharge.

Justice Merchan’s judgement could place a guilty judgement on Trump’s record though it would not impose custody, a fine or probation.

The four conservative judges who dissented from the majority Supreme Court decision were – Clarence Thomas, Samuel Alito, Neil Gorsuch, and Brett Kavanaugh. They noted that they would have granted Trump’s request.

Trump had approached the US Supreme Court after New York’s top court rejected the Republican leader’s request to halt the sentencing in the hush money trial.

Manhattan prosecutors had filed a plea in the Supreme Court on Thursday morning, opposing Trump’s attempt to stay the proceedings in the New York state court.

“Defendant now asks this court to take the extraordinary step of intervening in a pending state criminal trial to prevent the scheduled sentencing from taking place – before final judgment has been entered by the trial court, and before any direct appellate review of defendant’s conviction. There is no basis for such intervention,” the district attorney of Manhattan, Alvin Bragg’s office, wrote in a filing, reported Reuters.