The judge intervened to stop more explicit testimony.
Trump had made an eleventh-hour plea for a suspension of the criminal proceedings to the nation’s highest court after a New York State appeals court dismissed his effort to have the hearing delayed, and the state’s top court declined to act on the request.
But the Supreme Court ruled that the sentencing could proceed.
Prosecutors opposed the effort to stave off sentencing, 10 days before Trump is due to be sworn in for a second term, arguing it was wrong for the apex court to hear the case when the mogul still had avenues of appeal to pursue in New York.
“This Court lacks jurisdiction over a state court’s management of an ongoing criminal trial when defendant has not exhausted his state-law remedies,” the prosecution told the Supreme Court Thursday.
Legal wrangling
His lawyers have used several legal maneuvers in an effort to fend off the sentencing, which the judge in the case, Juan Merchan, has already indicated in a filing will not result in jail time.
Instead, experts expect Trump will receive an unconditional discharge, a measure without any sanctions or restriction that nonetheless upholds the jury’s guilty verdict — and Trump’s infamy as the first former president to be convicted of a felony.
The 78-year-old Trump had potentially faced up to four years in prison.
“He’s sticking his middle finger at the judge, the jury, the system of justice, and laughing,” said Pace University law professor and former prosecutor Bennett Gershman.