Donald Trump will be sentenced in the New York hush money case this morning just 10 days before he is inaugurated as president for the second time.
The 78-year-old will learn his fate after the Supreme Court rejected his bid to delay the hearing in Manhattan.
Trump was found guilty of 34 felony counts of falsifying business records to cover up a payment to porn star Stormy Daniels.
He will become the first president in history to take the White House has a convicted felon, even though he is only likely to receive a light punishment
Donald Trump called the Supreme Court rejecting his bid to delay his hush money case as a ‘fair decision’ but vowed to appeal on Thursday night.
The 78-year-old appeared content with the decision, even though conservative justices Amy Coney Barrett – who he appointed to the court – and Chief Justice John Roberts sided with the liberals who supported the decision.
‘We’re going to appeal anyway, just psychologically, because frankly it’s a disgrace,’ he said, though he noted he found a silver lining in reading the Supreme Court decision.
‘I read it and I thought it was a fair decision, actually, so I’ll do my little thing tomorrow. They can have fun with their little political opponent,’ he said, trying to paint the judge as politically-motivated.
Trump’s attorneys had asked for the sentencing be delayed as he appeals the verdict.
They argued that Trump is immune from criminal proceedings as president-elect, and said that some of the evidence used in the Manhattan trial violated last summer’s Supreme Court immunity decision.
The Supreme Court should immediately stop proceedings ‘to prevent grave injustice and harm to the institution of the Presidency and the operations of the federal government,’ his team argues.
Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito is facing criticism after he revealed he spoke with President-elect Donald Trump on Tuesday.
Their call happened one day before Trump’s lawyers made a last-ditch effort to have the country’s highest court stop sentencing in his hush money case.
The conservative justice said he spoke with the president-elect by phone on Tuesday to recommend a former law clerk for a job.
‘William Levi, one of my former law clerks, asked me to take a call from President-elect Trump regarding his qualifications to serve in a government position,’ Alito said in a statement.
‘I agreed to discuss this matter with President-elect Trump, and he called me yesterday afternoon,’ Alito continued.
The statement from Alito was released after the call was first reported by ABC News.
‘We also did not discuss any other matter that is pending or might in the future come before the Supreme Court or any past Supreme Court decisions involving the President-elect,’ Alito said.
Sentencing in Trump’s hush money case is set for Friday, January 10, but the president-elect had been trying to have the case dismissed.
The Supreme Court rejected his bid to throw out his conviction on Thursday night, setting up a showdown in court Friday morning.
Trump, 78, was found guilty last May on 34 counts of falsifying business records to cover up hush money payments made to keep Stormy Daniels quiet about an alleged affair before the 2016 election.
Critics are raising concerns after Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito revealed he spoke with Trump one day before the president-elect’s lawyers asked the court to stop his sentencing.
Donald Trump was in the New York Supreme Court every day for the marathon hush money case last year.
He watched as the likes of Stormy Daniels, Michael Cohen and loyal staff such as Hope Hicks testify.
During breaks in proceedings, he spoke to reporters and railed against the charges against him – describing them as a ‘witch hunt’.
But he is expected to appear remotely from Palm Beach as learns his punishment in the hush money face.
Donald Trump is likely to receive a conditional discharge when he is sentenced in the hush money case.
It means the president-elect will not receive any jail time and will avoid a fine or probation.
However he will get a criminal record, which cements him in history as the first president coming into office as a convicted felon.