Appeals court rejects Trump's latest attempt to get Friday's hush money sentencing called off

NEW YORK: President-elect Donald Trump was denied Tuesday in his second attempt to delay this week’s sentencing in his hush money case. A New York appeals court judge swiftly rejected Trump’s request for an order that would put off sentencing while he appeals a decision last week upholding the verdict. Merchan has suggested he will not sentence Trump to jail time or any punishment, but Blanche said that isn’t binding and asked Gesmer: “If Judge Merchan were to sentence President Trump to 11 days in prison, would the court say, ‘OK now we need to step in?’” Trump, whose sentencing will be held 10 days before his inauguration, is poised to be the first president to take office convicted of crimes. He said giving Trump what’s known as an unconditional discharge — closing the case without jail time, a fine or probation — “appears to be the most viable solution.” In his filing Tuesday, Blanche argued that Merchan’s interpretation of presidential immunity was wrong and that it should extend to a president-elect during “the complex, sensitive process of presidential transition.” “It is unconstitutional to conduct a criminal sentencing of the president-elect during a presidential transition, and doing so threatens to disrupt that transition and undermine the incoming president’s ability to effectively wield the executive power of the United States,” Blanche wrote. Manhattan prosecutors have pushed for sentencing to proceed as scheduled, “given the strong public interest in prompt prosecution and the finality of criminal proceedings.” Trump was convicted last May on charges involving an alleged scheme to hide a hush money payment to porn actor Stormy Daniels in the last weeks of Trump’s 2016 campaign to keep her from publicizing claims she’d had sex with him years earlier.