(The Center Square) – President-elect Donald Trump could be sentenced Friday after being convicted of 34 felonies in New York last year.
Trump’s defense team asked for automatic stay in the case because of an appeal they filed in the case Monday. Judge Juan Merchan denied Trump’s request for a stay. The judge said Trump’s recycled arguments wouldn’t stop his sentencing, which is set for Friday in New York, 10 days before Trump’s inauguration in Washington D.C.
“This Court has considered Defendant’s arguments in support of his motion and finds that they are for the most part, a repetition of the arguments he has raised numerous times in the past,” Merchan wrote.
Trump’s defense team has repeatedly tried to get the case tossed and to get a new judge in the case. Merchan has rejected all those attempts so far.
On Tuesday, Trump’s legal team asked a New York appellate court to throw out his conviction.
In May 2024, a Manhattan jury convicted Trump of 34 counts of falsifying business records for disguising hush money payments to an adult film actress as legal costs ahead of the 2016 election.
Under New York state law, falsifying business records in the first degree is a Class E felony with a maximum sentence of four years in prison.
Merchan wrote last week that Trump wouldn’t face jail or prison time. Merchan’s ruling said “the court’s inclination to not impose any sentence of incarceration” since voters elected Trump anyway.
Trump has repeatedly said his political opponents coordinated the criminal cases against him.
Federal prosecutors have moved to end two criminal cases against Trump – the election interference case in Washington D.C. and the classified documents case in Florida.
In the classified documents case, Trump and his former co-defendants asked Judge Aileen Cannon on Monday to block the release of a final report by special counsel Jack Smith that also addresses the election interference case.
“The Final Report promises to be a one-sided, slanted report, relying nearly exclusively on evidence presented to a grand jury and subject to all requisite protections – and which is known to Smith only as a result of his unconstitutional appointment – in order to serve a singular purpose: convincing the public that everyone Smith charged is guilty of the crimes charged,” the attorneys wrote.
Defense lawyers asked Cannon on Monday to hold a hearing and rule on their motion by Friday, saying they believe the release of the report is “imminent.”
