Trump to endure embarrassment of criminal sentencing after last-ditch Supreme Court appeal fails

CNN

Analysis by Stephen Collinson, CNN

(CNN) — 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 effort to delay sentencing in his New York hush money case sets up 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 won’t impose a jail term. But the sentencing hearing will nevertheless mean that Trump will be the first president to take office with a criminal conviction written into his official record.

The proximity of the sentencing to Trump’s inauguration will create a stunning juxtaposition. He will be a defendant subject to the authority of a judge and a jury verdict who will within days assume the vast 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 cliche by the unbelievable twists and turns of Trump’s life, his presidential campaigns and first White House term. But he will be making another head-spinning slice of history on Friday, after a campaign in which he defied four criminal indictments to win a second term.

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

Trump attacks the judge after verdict

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

Had the Supreme Court ruled the other way on this case, it would have emboldened critics who argue the court facilitated Trump’s attempts to delay accountability after taking weeks to rule on his claims of sweeping immunity last year and then awarding him significant protection for official acts. That decision slowed the federal cases, 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 in some small measure reassure those who believed that the court’s decisions had challenged the idea that every American, no matter their position in life, is equal before the law. But it will not quell the widespread anxiety among liberals that the conservative majority Trump built in his first term will show considerable deference to the commander in chief in a second administration that may test the rule of law and the Constitution more than his first.

The president-elect attacked Merchan after the Supreme Court’s decision came down Thursday evening. “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’ll do my little thing tomorrow, they can have fun with their political opponent … this is a long way from finished.”

The president-elect registered fury and disbelief about his plight during a news conference at Mar-a-Lago earlier this week, when he seemed preoccupied with the looming sentencing’s impact on his dignity.

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

Trump may not have needed any more incentive to use his powers as president to avenge what he claims is the weaponization of justice against him. But the sentencing could freshen his sense of grievance just before he takes power.

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

Two conservatives join the liberals

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 on January 20 as he’s expected to preside over the swearing in. Four other conservatives would have granted Trump’s request to delay sentencing, including Justice Samuel Alito, who faced Democratic calls to recuse himself after a recent phone call with Trump on what he said was an unrelated matter.

The majority held that neither of the grounds for a stay had merit, saying that Trump’s complaints about alleged evidentiary violations could be handled in the ordinary course of his appeals. It also disregarded the claim of Trump’s lawyers that sentencing would impose a burden on his responsibilities as president-elect, on the grounds that Merchan has stated he intends to sentence him to an unconditional discharge.

In another unusual twist in a staggering legal saga, Trump has picked two of his lawyers who filed the appeal to the top bench, 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 regarded as the weakest of the four criminal matters that Trump faced in the run-up to the election, but it was the only one to reach a conclusion.

• US District Court Judge Tanya Chutkan dismissed the federal election interference case against Trump after special counsel Jack Smith concluded, in line with Justice Department guidance after November’s election, that a sitting president cannot be prosecuted.
• Smith’s other prosecution of Trump – over alleged hoarding of classified documents at his Florida home – foundered after Judge Aileen Cannon, who was appointed by Trump, dismissed the case by ruling his appointment as special counsel violated the Constitution. Trump this week praised Cannon as “very brilliant” and “tough.”
• A fourth prosecution, over alleged 2020 election interference in Georgia, is in limbo after an appeals court disqualified Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis over appearances of impropriety over her past romantic relationship with one of her fellow prosecutors on the case.

Thursday’s decision may not end Trump’s business before a Supreme Court that has repeatedly been called into action to address 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 on 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 left a three-day hold on the DOJ’s release of the report, which could allow time for more appeals.

Trump is expected, yet again, to ask the Supreme Court to weigh in.

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