Judge Juan Merchan rejected President-elect Donald Trump‘s attempt to delay sentencing in his hush money case on Monday, one day after Trump made the request and two weeks before he enters the Oval Office.
Merchan wrote in an order that the sentencing would remain scheduled for Friday in Manhattan. The judge already offered Trump the option to appear virtually and has said he is likely to give a sentence of “unconditional discharge,” meaning the president-elect would receive no fines, probation, or jail time.
Merchan said Trump’s attorneys’ request for a sentencing delay lacked accuracy and included redundant arguments that the judge has rejected in the past.
“This Court finds that the authorities relied upon in the instant motion by the Defendant are for the most part, factually distinguishable from the actual record or legally inapplicable,” Merchan wrote.
Trump could still file an eleventh-hour appeal to Merchan’s decision to again attempt to delay the sentencing.
The president-elect was convicted by a jury in May of 34 felony counts of falsifying business records, a charge that normally carries up to four years of prison time in New York.
Trump’s defense team, led by his deputy attorney general nominee Todd Blanche, argued Sunday that Trump planned to file an appeal in the case related to presidential immunity that should be fully resolved before sentencing takes place.
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Proceeding with sentencing before the appeals process is completed could serve to undermine the duties of a president, Trump’s attorneys warned, saying that they expected an appellate court to ultimately toss out the case.
“That is because ‘the interests that underlie Presidential immunity seek to protect not the President himself, but the institution of the Presidency,’” Trump’s attorneys wrote.