Prosecutor urges U.S. Supreme Court to reject Trump bid to block sentencing

Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg urged the U.S. Supreme Court on Thursday to reject President-elect Donald Trump's request to block sentencing in his hush money case.

Trump is to be sentenced on Friday after being convicted by a New York jury in May of 34 counts of falsifying business records to cover up a hush money payment to porn star Stormy Daniels.

Trump, 78, who is to be sworn in as president on January 20, filed an emergency application with the Supreme Court on Wednesday seeking to halt his sentencing after a New York state appeals court dismissed his bid to have the hearing delayed.

Trump's lawyers have made several legal maneuvers in an effort to fend off the sentencing, which the judge in the case, Juan Merchan, has already indicated will not result in jail time.

"This court should enter an immediate stay of further proceedings in the New York trial court to prevent grave injustice and harm to the institution of the presidency and the operations of the federal government," they wrote in their application to the Supreme Court.

Trump's lawyers have claimed that the immunity from prosecution granted to a sitting president should be extended to a president-elect.

Bragg rejected their arguments in his response, saying that Trump was a private citizen when he was "charged, tried, and convicted for conduct that he concedes is wholly unofficial."

"Defendant makes the unprecedented claim that the temporary presidential immunity he will possess in the future fully immunizes him now, weeks before he even takes the oath of office, from all state-court criminal process," he said.

- 'No basis' -

Bragg also said the Supreme Court "lacks jurisdiction over a state court's management of an ongoing criminal trial" and preventing sentencing would be an "extraordinary step" by the top court.

"There is no basis for such intervention," Bragg said. "The emergency application should be denied."

In their filing to the New York appeals court, Trump's legal team had argued that sentencing should be postponed while the former president appeals his conviction, but associate justice Ellen Gesmer rejected that on Tuesday.

Merchan said in a filing last week he was leaning towards giving Trump an unconditional discharge that would not carry jail time or probation.

The sentence would nevertheless see Trump entering the White House as the first convicted felon to serve as US president.

Trump potentially faced up to four years in prison, but legal experts -- even before he won the November presidential election -- did not expect Merchan to incarcerate him.

Trump was certified as the winner of the 2024 presidential election on Monday, four years after his supporters rioted at the US Capitol as he sought to overturn his 2020 defeat.

© Agence France-Presse