Washington – The Supreme Court on Thursday rejected President-elect Donald Trump’s request to block a New York judge from sentencing him on Friday to convict him of a felony in a secret money case.
The vote was 5 to 4, with conservative Justices Clarence Thomas, Samuel Alito Jr., Neil M. Gorsuch, and Brett M. Kavanaugh saying they would have granted Trump’s request.
The decision means that Trump will be the first president to have a felony on his record when he is sworn in on January 20.
The majority said in an unsigned opinion that Trump was still free to appeal his conviction at a later date, and said the sentencing hearing would not pose a significant burden because he did not need to attend.
Trump’s lawyers I made an urgent appeal on Wednesday, which was based on a weak claim of immunity.
Last year, justices ruled that a president or former president is immune from criminal charges for his or her “official acts” while in office.
This week, Trump’s lawyers argued that justices should extend the immunity rule to protect the president-elect from accountability now for a private criminal scheme that began before he was elected president.
A New York jury convicted Trump of falsifying business records, a crime under New York law. He wrote checks to Michael Cohen, his former personal attorney, to repay an adult film star $130,000 to buy her silence before the 2016 election. The payments were listed as legal expenses.
Jurors convicted him of 34 charges.
Trump’s lawyers urged Judge Juan Merchan to postpone his sentencing until after the November election.
Once Trump won the election, they argued that the next president was immune from all pending criminal cases, including a felony conviction.
New York prosecutors urged the court on Thursday to reject Trump’s “claim for extraordinary immunity.”
“While he was a private citizen, the defendant [Trump] “He was accused, tried and convicted of conduct that he admitted was completely unofficial.” They said that in his appeal he “makes the unprecedented claim that the temporary presidential immunity he will enjoy in the future fully immunizes him now” before he is sworn in as president again.
On Tuesday, the day before his lawyers filed their emergency appeal with the Supreme Court, Trump arranged to speak with Alito about one of his former employees. Alito confirmed the call to ABC News.
“William Levy, one of my former law clerks, asked me to take a phone call from President-elect Trump about… [Levi’s] “The qualifications necessary to serve in a government position,” Alito said. “I agreed to discuss this matter with President-elect Trump, and he called me yesterday afternoon.”
He said they had not discussed the “emergency motion” related to Trump’s sentencing in New York, which has not yet been filed with the court.
“I did not know until the time of our conversation that such a request would be made,” Alito said. “We also did not discuss any other matter that is pending or may come up in the future before the Supreme Court or any prior Supreme Court decisions related to the president-elect.”
Alito cast his vote for Trump.