Trump asks Supreme Court to delay sentencing in New York case

Michael Macagnone, CQ-Roll Call on Jan 8, 2025

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President-elect Donald Trump asked the Supreme Court on Wednesday to halt the sentencing for his felony conviction in New York state, the latest in a series of moves from the incoming president seeking to use the courts to shield him before inauguration.

The last-minute application to the justices comes just two days before the sentencing hearing set for Friday. And it follows attempts by Trump and allies to forestall a Supreme Court decision about social media giant TikTok until he takes office, as well as delay the release of the final report by Special Counsel John L. “Jack” Smith, who supervised criminal cases against Trump in Washington and Florida.

On the New York sentencing issue, Trump’s attorneys urged the justices to pause the sentencing for Trump’s conviction while an appeal works its way through the courts and to prevent interference with his coming inauguration.

“This Court should enter an immediate stay of further proceedings in the New York trial court to prevent grave injustice and harm to the institution of the Presidency and the operations of the federal government,” Trump’s attorneys argued.

Trump is scheduled to face sentencing Friday following his conviction last year on 34 charges of falsifying business records to hide reimbursement of payment to adult film star Stormy Daniels to keep a story about them having sex from emerging before the 2016 election.

The presiding New York state judge, Judge Juan Merchan, already said he would not impose a prison term on Trump. Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg is set to respond to Trump’s application by Thursday morning.

Since a Supreme Court case last year that held the presidency made Trump immune to most federal charges, Trump has argued the New York state case should be thrown out because the jury considered evidence from when he was in office. Trump’s attorneys, including Solicitor General nominee D. John Sauer, reiterated those arguments Wednesday.

“This appeal will ultimately result in the dismissal of the District Attorney’s politically motivated prosecution that was flawed from the very beginning, centered around the wrongful actions and false claims of a disgraced, disbarred serial-liar former attorney, violated President Trump’s due process rights, and had no merit,” the Trump application said.

Trump has also turned to the courts to prevent the release of a coming report from Smith — and two of Trump’s codefendants in the Florida case had some success in that regard Tuesday.

U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon, a Trump appointee, ordered Smith not to release the report — even though the case is pending before a different court, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit.

Cannon’s order bars the Department of Justice, Smith, “all of their officers, agents, and employees, and all persons acting in active concert or participation with such individuals” from releasing any portion of the report.

That order came after Trump himself revealed portions of the report in his court filing, such as Smith’s conclusions that Trump “engaged in an unprecedented criminal effort,” and served as the “head of the criminal conspiracies” Smith investigated.

In a filing at the 11th Circuit on Wednesday, the DOJ said Smith has already sent his report to Attorney General Merrick B. Garland.

“What defendants now ask this Court to enjoin is not any action by the Special Counsel, but the Attorney General’s authority to decide whether to make such a report public,” the filing said.

The filing said the report includes two volumes; one detailing the investigation into Trump’s effort to overturn his 2020 election loss and the second laying out the steps Trump took to allegedly unlawfully keep classified documents at his Florida club after the end of his presidency.

The DOJ filing said that Garland would not release the second volume while the case is pending in Florida but intends to release the first one in the coming days. The filing said that House and Senate Judiciary members would be able to access the report, but that it would not be released publicly.

The filing said “there is neither any need nor legal basis for an injunction” on the release of the report.

The report represents the last acts of Smith’s tenure as special counsel following Trump’s victory in last year’s election and subsequent dismissal of federal criminal cases against Trump.

Garland appointed Smith to serve as an independent investigator in 2022 after Trump launched his reelection campaign. Smith ultimately launched two criminal prosecutions: one accusing Trump of masterminding an effort to overturn the 2020 presidential election, and a second accusing Trump of illegally keeping some of the nation’s most closely guarded secrets unsecured in his Florida club.

The government moved to dismiss those last year, citing department policy that a sitting president cannot be prosecuted.