The United States Supreme Court rejected President-elect Donald Trump's request to halt a New York state court's conviction for falsifying business records.
The court in a 5-4 decision denied a last-minute request by Trump's lawyers to delay the sentencing, scheduled for Friday at 9:30 a.m. in New York state court in Manhattan. Chief Justice John Roberts and his conservative colleague Amy Coney Barrett joined the three liberal justices Sonia Sotomayor, Elena Kagan and Ketanji Brown Jackson in voting against Mr Trump's request.
The judge in Trump's case, Juan Merchan, said last week that he was not inclined to sentence the Republican president-elect to prison and would likely release him without conditions. This means that the decision to find him guilty of the criminal charges will be part of the court docket, but he will not receive any jail time, fines or probation.
Four conservative justices Clarence Thomas, Samuel Alito, Neil Gorsuch and Brett Kavanaugh voted in favor of Trump's request.
The Supreme Court took up Trump's request to stay the sentence after it was rejected by the New York state Supreme Court on Thursday.
Former President Trump was found guilty by a jury on May 30, 2024 of 34 counts of falsifying business records to conceal a $130,000 payment to silence a pornographic actress. , Stormy Daniels, just before the 2016 presidential election.
Ms Daniels claims she had a sexual relationship with Mr Trump in 2006 after meeting him at a golf tournament in Lake Tahoe. Former President Trump has repeatedly denied this claim.
Prosecutors say the payment to Ms. Daniels was part of a broader scheme to buy the silence of people who could go public during the election campaign with embarrassing stories of extramarital affairs. Prosecutors said Trump's former lawyer, Michael Cohen, made the payments to Ms. Daniels and that he was later reimbursed by Trump, whose firm booked the payments as legal expenses.
Falsifying business data is punishable by up to four years in prison. Trump is the first former US president to be found guilty of a felony. VOA (A2 Televizion)
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