The Supreme Court on Thursday denied US President-elect Donald Trump’s bid to halt criminal proceedings in his New York hush money case, allowing a sentencing hearing scheduled for Friday to proceed, according to a report by NBC News.
In a 5-4 decision, with four conservative justices dissenting, the conservative-majority court reversed its stance after granting Trump two significant victories last year. Trump will return back to the White House on January 20.
The brief unsigned order said the issues Trump wants to raise “can be addressed in the ordinary course on appeal.” The burden sentencing imposes on Trump is “relatively insubstantial,” the court added, because he is not going to receive any prison time, NBC reported.
Following the Supreme Court’s decision to allow the sentencing hearing in his New York hush money case to proceed, Trump criticised the ruling and the judicial process involved. He denounced the case as politically motivated and expressed confidence that justice will prevail.
Trump in a post on social media platform Truth Social said, “I appreciate the time and effort of the United States Supreme Court in trying to remedy the great injustice done to
me by the highly conflicted “Acting Justice,” who should not have been allowed to try this case. Every legal scholar stated, unequivocally, that this is a case that should never have been brought. There was no case against me. In other words, I am innocent of all of the Judge’s made up, fake charges. This was nothing other than weaponization of our justice system against a political opponent.”
