After months of legal twists and turns, Donald Trump’s most active criminal case is finally coming to a conclusion.

The former and future president is scheduled to appear in a Manhattan courtroom on Friday for his conviction on 34 counts of falsifying business records to conceal a payment to an adult film star.

Trump exhausted his final legal maneuver on Thursday to block the conviction after a narrow majority of Supreme Court justices declined to intervene.

In a statement on Truth Social, Trump thanked the Supreme Court for attempting to intervene.

“I am innocent of all of the judge’s fabricated and false accusations. This was nothing more than the weaponization of our justice system against a political opponent,” he posted. He said he would appeal the verdict and his sentence.

The hearing comes just ten days before Trump is expected to be sworn in as the 47th President of the United States. He had argued that the conviction would affect his ability to govern.

With that in mind, New York State Judge Juan Merchan has indicated that he does not plan to sentence Trump to prison or even probation, and that he will instead likely offer an “unconditional release,” meaning the President-elect doesn’t have to do anything other than the conviction remains on his record.

Prosecutors have signaled that the hearing could be brief – less than an hour – and that Trump is expected to attend the hearing virtually.

“The defendant doesn’t have to do anything else, and so it’s the least restrictive in terms of how it could in any way impede the president-elect when he takes office,” says Anna Cominsky, director of the criminal defense clinic at New York Law School , said about the expected punishment of an unconditional dismissal.

“It definitely makes sense for this case to have some finality because as a nation we should want to move on, particularly as he assumes the role of president, and be able to look to the next four years without this Judgment is pending,” Cominsky said. “There has to be an end.”

Of course, Trump’s legal team will appeal – as they have done throughout the legal process. The objections could drag on for years.

Since Trump’s conviction in May, Merchan has delayed sentencing several times, including to avoid the appearance of political bias before Election Day and then to give Trump a chance to argue based on a Supreme Court ruling on presidential immunity that he in that case enjoy immunity.

Merchan ultimately disputed the immunity claims and dismissal, paving the way for Friday’s hearing.

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In May, Trump became the first former or current US president to be tried and convicted of a crime.

Manhattan state court jurors heard from 22 witnesses during about a month of testimony in Manhattan criminal court. Jurors also weighed other evidence – mainly documents such as phone records, invoices and checks to Michael Cohen, Trump’s one-time loyal “fixer” who paid adult film star Stormy Daniels to keep quiet about her story of an alleged affair with the former president.

After about a day and a half of deliberations, the 12 jurors said they unanimously agreed that Trump falsified business records to conceal a $130,000 hush-money payment to Daniels to influence the 2016 presidential election.

But the conviction appeared to have little impact on Trump’s popularity – and his ultimate victory in the 2024 presidential election. He used the legal drama to mobilize donations for his campaign and increasing legal fees.

Within 24 hours of the guilty verdict, Trump’s campaign boasted that it had raised millions of dollars.

And 49% of the country’s voters ultimately chose to put Trump back in the White House in November’s election.