The U.S. Supreme Court on Thursday rejected President-elect Donald Trump’s request to delay his criminal sentencing in New York, paving the way for the proceedings to take place as scheduled on Friday.
In a brief, unsigned order, a five-justice majority noted that Mr Trump was not facing a prison sentence and could still appeal his conviction through regular legal channels.
According to the New York Times, the court also dismissed Mr Trump’s argument that sentencing just ten days before his inauguration would disrupt the presidential transition, stating that the burden on his responsibilities as president-elect would be “relatively insubstantial.”
Earlier on Thursday, a judge on the New York Court of Appeals in Albany, the state’s highest court, denied a separate request from Mr Trump to halt the sentencing.
Leaving Mr Trump with no legal recourse to postpone Friday’s proceedings.
Mr Trump said the Supreme Court’s ruling had spurred him to move forward.
“I read it and I thought it was a fair decision, actually, so I’ll do my little thing tomorrow,” he said, downplaying the potential impact of the sentencing.
The majority ruling included Chief Justice John Roberts and Justices Sonia Sotomayor, Amy Coney Barrett, Elena Kagan, and Ketanji Brown Jackson.
The court’s four other conservative justices Clarence Thomas, Samuel Alito, Neil Gorsuch, and Brett Kavanaugh dissent but did not provide written opinions.
The decision allows sentencing to proceed in a Lower Manhattan courtroom, where Mr Trump was convicted of 34 felony counts.
The New York Times reports that at a Thursday evening press conference from his Mar-a-Lago estate, Mr Trump denounced the case and announced plans to appeal the conviction, despite not facing jail time or significant punishment.
