Trump lawyers made a 'colossal mistake' after judge denied bid to delay sentencing: expert

Despite his best efforts, President-elect Donald Trump is still scheduled to be sentenced for his 34 felony convictions this Friday in New York.

Trump was hoping to push his sentencing date past his January 20 inauguration date, after which any sentencing is unlikely given that it would interfere with his duties as commander-in-chief. But on Tuesday, Justice Ellen Gesmer of the First Judicial Department's Appellate Division in New York denied the president-elect's motion to delay his January 10 sentencing date.

In a thread posted to Bluesky, former assistant U.S. attorney Mitchell Epner explained that Trump will now have to appeal Gesmer's decision to the New York Court of Appeals, which is the Empire State's highest court. Judges on that court could then either deny Trump's appeal, or not rule at all, which would mean his sentence would still be handed down on January 10.

However, if the New York Court of Appeals upholds Gesmer's ruling, Trump would then have to hang his hopes on the Supreme Court of the United States. While the Court has a 6-3 conservative supermajority, New York is part of the 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals, which is under Justice Sonia Sotomayor's purview. It's not likely that Sotomayor — who President Obama appointed to the Supreme Court in 2009 — would side with Trump.

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"NY law is quite clear that a case can go forward without the defendant in attendance, if they refuse to show up," Epner wrote. "Once the sentence of "unconditional release" is imposed, it will be up to Trump whether to pursue an appeal of the underlying 34 felony convictions during his Presidency."

Former Watergate prosecutor Jill Wine-Banks called Justice Gesmer's decision "good news" in the wake of U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon's "crazy" ruling on Tuesday. Cannon — a Trump appointee — blocking the release of Department of Justice special counsel Jack Smith's final report summarizing his two investigations into the president-elect. Northeastern Illinois University political science professor William Adler wryly observed that Cannon would block Trump's sentencing, adding: "yes I know it's a NY state case and she's in Florida, you think she cares?"

Historian Varad Mehta observed that while Trump could have filed motions in the federal judiciary to delay his sentencing, he may not have enough time to do so given that his sentencing date is just three days away.

"Onto the NY Court of Appeals," Mehta tweeted. "And while they're at it, Trump's lawyers should finally be filing in federal court to stop this. It's a colossal mistake for them not to have done so already, but better late than never."

After Trump was found guilty on all 34 felony counts of falsifying business documents last May, Merchan was initially planning to hand down his sentence in July. However, he pushed back his sentencing date to September in order to review how the Supreme Court's decision to grant Trump absolute broad criminal immunity for all official acts applied to his convictions. Sentencing was pushed back once again to after the November election, before being moved to January 10, 2025.

Merchan has signaled that he will hand down a sentence of unconditional release, meaning Trump won't actually face any jail time or fines despite being convicted of 34 felonies and facing a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison. However, assuming the January 10 sentencing date moves forward, Trump will officially be the first convicted felon to serve as president of the United States.

Click here to read Justice Gesmer's 19-word ruling.