WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court on Thursday turned down President-elect Donald Trump’s plea to block a New York judge from sentencing him Friday on his felony conviction in a hush-money case.
The vote was 5-4, with conservative Justices Clarence Thomas, Samuel A. Alito Jr., Neil M. Gorsuch and Brett M. Kavanaugh saying they would have granted Trump’s request.
The decision means Trump will be the first president to have a felony on his record when he takes the oath of office on Jan. 20.
The majority in an unsigned opinion said Trump is still free to appeal his conviction later and said the sentencing hearing will not pose much of a burden, since he need not attend.
Trump’s lawyers filed an emergency appeal on Wednesday that rested on a thin claim of immunity.
Last year, the justices ruled that a president or ex-president was immune from criminal charges for his “official acts” while in office.
This week, Trump’s lawyers argued the justices should extend the immunity rule to shield the president-elect from being held accountable now for a private criminal scheme that began before his election as president.
Trump had been charged with falsifying business records, a crime under New York law. He wrote checks to Michael Cohen, his former personal lawyer, to repay him for a $130,000 payment to an adult film star to buy her silence prior to the 2016 election. The payments were listed as legal expenses.
A New York jury convicted him on 34 counts.
Trump’s trial lawyers urged Judge Juan Merchan to delay his sentencing until after the November election.
Once Trump won reelection, they argued the incoming president had an immunity from all the pending criminal cases, including his felony conviction for falsifying business records.
New York prosecutors had urged the court on Thursday to deny Trump’s “extraordinary immunity claim.”
“While he was a private citizen, defendant [Trump] was charged, tried, and convicted for conduct that he concedes is wholly unofficial,” they said. In his appeal, he “makes the unprecedented claim that the temporary presidential immunity he will possess in the future fully immunizes him now,” before he is sworn in as president again, they said.
Justice Alito cast a vote in favor of Trump.
On Tuesday, the day before his attorneys filed their emergency appeal in the high court, Trump arranged to speak with Alito about one of his former clerks. Alito confirmed the call to ABC News.
“William Levi, one of my former law clerks, asked me to take a call from President-elect Trump regarding [Levi’s] qualifications to serve in a government position,” Alito said. “I agreed to discuss this matter with President-elect Trump, and he called me yesterday afternoon.”
He said they did not discuss the “emergency application” regarding Trump’s New York sentencing, which had not been filed yet at the court.
“I was not even aware at the time of our conversation that such an application would be filed,” Alito said. “We also did not discuss any other matter that is pending or might in the future come before the Supreme Court or any past Supreme Court decisions involving the president-elect.”
