New York's top court denies Trump's request to halt sentencing for hush money case

NEW YORK -- New York State Court of Appeals on Thursday refused to halt the sentencing of US President-elect Donald Trump in the hush money case scheduled for Friday.

Jenny Rivera, one judge of the New York State Court of Appeals, declined to sign the order after reviewing the motion to impose a stay of the sentencing, according to a brief order issued by the court Thursday morning.

"As a result of the Judge's determination, no motion is pending in the above title at the Court of Appeals," said the order.

Trump's argument to delay his sentencing rests on an "utterly baseless" concept of president-elect immunity, said prosecutors with the Manhattan district attorney's office in a filing with the Court of Appeals.

As Trump's lawyers turned to both the New York State Court of Appeals and the Supreme Court of the United States to postpone the sentencing, it's now up to the Supreme Court to make the call.

Ellen Gesmer, associate justice with Appellate Division of the Supreme Court of New York, First Department, on Tuesday denied Trump's bid to halt the sentencing for the hush money case.

Juan Merchan, justice of the New York State Supreme Court in Manhattan, is set to hold a hearing for Trump's sentencing in the hush money case Friday morning in Lower Manhattan.

In May 2024, a jury in New York found Trump guilty of all 34 felony counts of falsifying business records in a bid to hide hush money payments to a porn star in 2016 and the initial date of sentencing was July 11, 2024.