Trump loses last-ditch attempt to stop hush money sentencing
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New York appeals court rejects president-elect’s latest move to halt his imminent sentencing date. An appeals court judge has rejected Donald Trump’s last-ditch attempt to stop this week’s sentencing hearing in his hush money trial. The president-elect has desperately fought to return to the White House with a clear record. But after his latest courtroom failures to overturn his conviction and sentence, Trump is set to enter office as the first criminally convicted president in U.S. history.
![[Trump’s criminal defense attorney Todd Blanche could not convince a New York appeals court judge to block the president-elect’s sentencing date in his hush money trial]](https://static.independent.co.uk/2025/01/07/19/7c745f6aa1904ead8dfd65ac380ae6dc.jpg)
Trump is scheduled to be sentenced by New York Justice Juan Merchan in Manhattan criminal court on January 10. The president-elect will be inaugurated 10 days later on January 20. Merchan is expected to impose a sentence of “unconditional discharge” — meaning a sentence of no jail time, probation or fines — as “the most viable solution” to preserve the jury’s verdict while letting Trump continue to appeal.
Trump’s attorneys argued that Merchan overstepped his jurisdiction when he allowed a sentencing date to move forward while courts were “still grappling” with his defense that presidential “immunity” should shield him from criminal prosecution and even sentencing.
The appellate judge presiding over his emergency motion appeared unconvinced on Tuesday. New York Justice Ellen Gesmer stressed that Trump’s hush money trial doesn’t involve presidential immunity but the proposed immunity “of a president-elect.”.
