New York's highest court declined to block Donald Trump's upcoming sentencing in his hush money case Thursday, leaving the U.S. Supreme Court as the president-elect's likely last option to prevent the hearing from taking place Friday.
One judge of the New York Court of Appeals issued a brief order declining to grant a hearing to Trump's legal team.
Trump has asked the Supreme Court to call off Friday’s sentencing in the hush money case.
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His lawyers turned to the nation’s highest court on Wednesday after lower New York courts refused to postpone the sentencing by Judge Juan M. Merchan, who presided over Trump’s trial and conviction last May on 34 felony counts of falsifying business records.
Merchan has signaled that he is not likely to punish Trump for his conviction and will accommodate the transition by allowing him to appear at sentencing by video, rather than in person at a Manhattan courthouse.
Trump, less than two weeks from his inauguration, is poised to be the first president to take office convicted of crimes. He has denied wrongdoing.
