Four conservative justices – Clarence Thomas, Samuel Alito, Neil Gorsuch and Brett Kavanaugh – dissented from the decision, noting they would have granted Trump’s request. The court has a 6-3 conservative majority. Trump appointed Gorsuch, Kavanaugh and Barrett to their lifetime posts on the court during his first term in office.
Trump said in remarks at his Mar-a-Lago residence in Florida after the Supreme Court’s order: “I read it, and I thought was a fair decision, actually.”
Trump wrote on his social media platform: “For the sake and sanctity of the Presidency, I will be appealing this case, and am confident that JUSTICE WILL PREVAIL.”
Trump had sought relief from the justices as he pursued a state court appeal to resolve questions of presidential immunity following a Supreme Court ruling last July that granted former presidents broad immunity from criminal prosecution for their official acts.
The Supreme Court acted after New York’s top court on Thursday rejected Trump’s request to halt his sentencing.
Manhattan prosecutors made a filing at the Supreme Court on Thursday morning, opposing Trump’s bid for a stay.
“Defendant now asks this court to take the extraordinary step of intervening in a pending state criminal trial to prevent the scheduled sentencing from taking place – before final judgment has been entered by the trial court, and before any direct appellate review of defendant’s conviction. There is no basis for such intervention,” Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s office wrote in a filing.
Trump in a Supreme Court filing made public on Wednesday had asked for proceedings in the case to stop as he seeks an appeal following the Supreme Court’s landmark presidential immunity ruling last July.
“This appeal will ultimately result in the dismissal of the District Attorney’s politically motivated prosecution that was flawed from the very beginning,” Trump’s lawyer John Sauer wrote in the filing.
Trump was found guilty last May of 34 counts of falsifying business records to cover up a US$130,000 payment to porn star Stormy Daniels in exchange for her silence before the 2016 US election about a sexual encounter she has said she had with Trump a decade earlier, which he has denied.
Prosecutors have said the payment was designed to help Trump’s chances in the 2016 election, when he defeated Democrat Hillary Clinton.
Trump is the first former US president to be criminally prosecuted and the first former president convicted of a crime.
Trump has denied any wrongdoing.
Trump’s lawyers contend that prosecutors improperly admitted evidence of Trump’s official acts during the trial. They also argue that, as president-elect, Trump is immune from prosecution during the period between his November election victory and his inauguration.
