Trump to endure the embarrassment of a criminal conviction after the last appeal by the Supreme Court failed

CNN
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The Supreme Court didn’t help Donald Trump … this time.

The court’s 5-4 decision Thursday to deny the president-elect’s last-minute efforts to delay sentencing in his New York hush money case creates a stunning moment — a Friday court date just 10 days before Trump is sworn in for a second term.

Judge Juan Merchan has already said he will not impose a prison sentence. But the sentencing will nonetheless mean that Trump will become the first president to take office with a criminal conviction on his official record.

The proximity of the sentencing to Trump’s inauguration will make for a great juxtaposition. He will be an accused subject to the authority of a judge and a jury verdict, who within days will assume the enormous powers of the presidency and become the ultimate guardian of the nation’s laws and the Constitution.

The word “unprecedented” has been worn into a cliché by the incredible twists and turns of Trump’s life, his presidential campaigns and first term in the White House. But he will make another head-spinning slice of history on Friday, after a campaign in which he defied four criminal charges to win a second term.

Trump will not be at the hearing in the same New York courtroom where he was sentenced last year, but will attend virtually from his Florida home, a person familiar with the matter told CNN’s Kaitlan Collins.

The defeat at the Supreme Court was a rare reversal of Trump’s strategy of trying to delay his criminal cases with more appeals — which he used in his federal cases to buy time until he could use his executive authority to thwart them. For this to work, of course, he would have to live up to his end of the bargain and win the election.

If the Supreme Court had gone the other way in this case, it would have emboldened critics who argue that the court facilitated Trump’s attempts to delay accountability after taking weeks to rule on his claims of blanket immunity last year and then awarding him significant protection for official acts. This decision slowed the federal proceedings, allowing him to succeed in preventing trials from taking place before the election.

Thursday’s ruling — in which two conservatives sided with liberal justices — may go some way to reassuring those who believed the court’s rulings challenged the idea that every American, regardless of their station in life, is equal before the law. But that will not assuage widespread anxiety among liberals that the conservative majority Trump built in his first term will show considerable respect for the commander-in-chief in another administration that could test the rule of law and the Constitution more than his first.

The president-elect attacked Merchan after the Supreme Court ruling came down Thursday night. “We’re going to appeal anyway, just psychologically, because frankly, it’s a disgrace. It’s a judge that shouldn’t have been on the case,” Trump told reporters at his Mar-a-Lago club. “So I will do my little thing tomorrow, they can have fun with their political opponent … this is far from over.”

The president-elect registered fury and disbelief at his situation during a press conference at Mar-a-Lago earlier this week as he appeared preoccupied with the looming verdict’s impact on his dignity.

“I’m the president-elect of the United States. I’m a former, very successful president,” Trump said, complaining that he was the victim of a “judge who works hard to try to embarrass” him.

Trump may have needed no more incentive to use his powers as president to avenge what he claims are the weapons of justice against him. But the sentencing could refresh his sense of grievance just before he takes power.

Trump was convicted in May of 34 counts of falsifying business records over payments to his then-lawyer Michael Cohen to repay a $130,000 hush money payment to adult film star Stormy Daniels to prevent her from speaking out about an alleged affair before the 2016 election. Trump pleaded not guilty in the case and has denied the relationship.

The two conservatives who joined the liberals were Chief Justice John Roberts and Justice Amy Coney Barrett, who was appointed by Trump in his first term. Roberts will see Trump face-to-face on Inauguration Day, Jan. 20, when he is expected to preside over the inauguration. Four other conservatives would have granted Trump’s request to delay the sentencing, including Justice Samuel Alito, who faced Democratic calls to recuse himself. a recent phone call with Trump on what he said was an unrelated matter.

The majority held that neither ground for a stay was warranted, and said Trump’s complaints about alleged evidentiary violations could be addressed in the ordinary course of his appeal. It also dismissed the claim by Trump’s lawyers that sentencing would burden his responsibilities as president-elect, on the grounds that Merchan has stated his intention to sentence him to an unconditional release.

In another unusual twist in a dizzying legal saga, Trump has chosen two of his top bench appellate lawyers, Todd Blanche and D. John Sauer, to serve as deputy attorney general and solicitor general, respectively, in his new administration.

The hush money case brought by Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg was long considered the weakest of the four criminal cases Trump faced in the run-up to the election, but it was the only one to reach a conclusion.

Thursday’s decision may not end Trump’s business at a Supreme Court that has repeatedly been called into action to resolve the constitutional questions raised during and after a first administration that shattered norms of presidential conduct.

That’s because the president-elect lost another legal battle Thursday after a federal appeals court declined to block the Justice Department from releasing Smith’s final investigative report.

The 11th US Circuit Court of Appeals stayed a three-day stay on the DOJ’s release of the report, which could allow time for more appeals.

Trump is expected to once again ask the Supreme Court to rule.