Trump’s New York hush money conviction

Trump’s New York hush money conviction

Former U.S. President Donald Trump attends his trial for allegedly covering up hush money payments in Manhattan Criminal Court on May 13, 2024 in New York City.

Spencer Platt | Reuters

President-elect Donald Trump is scheduled to be sentenced in his hush-money trial in New York on Friday morning, more than eight years after the events that led to his prosecution and 10 days before he is inaugurated for a second term in the White House.

Trump, who will attend the hearing remotely, is expected to receive no prison time, no probation and no fine from Manhattan Supreme Court Judge Juan Merchan.

But Merchan’s actions will officially make Trump the first criminal convict to ever occupy the Oval Office.

The hearing comes a day after Trump and his wife Melania Trump attended former President Jimmy Carter’s funeral in Washington. The Trumps sat with every other living former president.

A jury in May found Trump guilty of 34 counts of falsifying business records related to a $130,000 hush money payment that his then-personal attorney made to porn star Stormy Daniels shortly before the 2016 presidential election. Daniels was paid for her silence on allegations that she once had sex with Trump a decade earlier, which the president-elect has denied.

The U.S. Supreme Court on Thursday evening lifted the final legal obstacle to Trump’s conviction, rejecting his request to block proceedings in the case.

The decision was close – 5 to 4 – with Trump appointee Justice Amy Coney Barrett making the majority decision along with conservative Chief Justice John Roberts and three liberal justices.

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The ruling noted that Trump’s sentence would impose a “relatively insignificant” burden on his presidential responsibilities and that he still has the right to appeal claims that Merchan improperly admitted certain evidence at trial.

Trump’s lawyers argue that he is immune from criminal prosecution, but courts have repeatedly rejected that claim in connection with the hush money case because he was not yet president at the time of his initial conduct in the case.

This is a developing story. Check back for updates.

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