Donald Trump will officially be the first felon to assume the office of the president of the United States on January 20.
On Thursday evening, in a 5-4 decision, the Supreme Court refused his emergency request to halt the sentencing in his “hush money” case. Four justices — Clarence Thomas, Samuel Alito, Neil Gorsuch, and Brett Kavanaugh — voted in Trump’s favor, while John Roberts, Amy Coney Barrett, Sonia Sotomayor, Elena Kagan, and Ketanji Brown Jackson voted against him.
This was the last chance for the former and soon-to-be president to avoid the sentencing for his 34-count felony conviction. The hearing will take place at 9:30 a.m. on Friday morning, and Trump will face Judge Juan Merchan, who presided over the case, virtually. It’s unlikely that he will receive prison time or any sort of probation.
The Supreme Court order issued on Thursday stated:
The application for stay presented to Justice Sotomayor and by her referred to the Court is denied for, inter alia, the following reasons. First, the alleged evidentiary violations at President-Elect Trump’s state-court trial can be addressed in the ordinary course on appeal. Second, the burden that sentencing will impose on the President-Elect’s responsibilities is relatively insubstantial in light of the trial court’s stated intent to impose a sentence of “unconditional discharge” after a brief virtual hearing. Justice Thomas, Justice Alito, Justice Gorsuch, and Justice Kavanaugh would grant the application.
Trump didn’t seem too upset about the decision. While speaking at an event at Mar-a-Lago, he responded by saying:
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 political opponent.
Trump’s original conviction came in May. He was accused of falsifying payment records to his lawyer at the time, Michael Cohen, to reimburse $130,000 in hush money paid to Stormy Daniels to prevent her from talking publicly about an alleged affair. Trump denies the affair even took place.
This is a developing story, and we’ll have more information as it becomes available.
