Trump faces sentencing under the new ruling

Roommates, it seems Donald Trump couldn’t get out of it! On Thursday (January 9th), New York’s highest court refused to block the president-elect’s sentencing in a money laundering case. The verdict is due to be announced on Friday.

RELATED: oh! California governor calls out Donald Trump for playing politics with his wildfire message (UPDATE)

Donald Trump’s lawyers argued THIS about the Hush Money case

A New York Court of Appeals judge issued a brief injunction denying a hearing to Trump’s legal team. So now the US Supreme Court is probably the last option to prevent a hearing on the hush money case. According to Associated PressTrump has already asked the Supreme Court to overturn Friday’s ruling. His lawyers appealed to the nation’s highest court on Wednesday after New York courts refused to delay sentencing.

Judge Juan M. Merchan must conduct a sentencing hearing. Merchan also presided The trial and conviction of Trump in May last year on 34 criminal offenses related to falsification of commercial documents. Trump has consistently denied guilt.

In a filing with New York’s highest court, attorneys for Donald Trump said Merchan and the state’s middle-level appeals court “erroneously failed” to stay the conviction. His team argued that the Constitution requires an automatic pause when they appeal. In addition, his lawyers said the sentence would disrupt the presidential transition. The president-elect is preparing to return to the White House on January 20.

Keep in mind that Judge Merchan already said it will not impose jail time, fines or probation. However, Trump’s lawyers have argued that a felony conviction would still have side effects, including distracting the president-elect during his transition.

Trump’s lawyer D. John Sauer called the case politically motivated and said the verdict would now be “a grave injustice.” Sauer is also Trump’s pick for solicitor general, representing the government at the High Court.

Trump’s lawyers also argue that the evidence used in the Manhattan trial violates a Supreme Court ruling from last summer. The ruling gave Trump broad immunity from prosecution for actions he took as president. They said sentencing should be stayed while their appeals deal with the issue of immunity.

Prosecutors and judges oppose Trump’s legal team

However, prosecutors and appeals court judges resisted this narrative. The prosecution argued that there was no reason for the high court to take the “extraordinary step” of dropping the case. They also said Trump’s claims were not strong enough to overturn his conviction. In addition, they say his appeal should not freeze the case because it is about evidence, not the underlying charges.

“There is a compelling public interest in sentencing,” Manhattan prosecutors wrote. “Defendant has provided no record to support his claim that his duties as president-elect preclude him from being practically present at the sentencing, which is likely to take no more than an hour.”

Meanwhile, judges in New York ruled that Trump’s convictions were personal matters and did not comply with the Supreme Court’s ruling on immunity.

Trump’s legal team has sent its emergency petition to the US Supreme Court to Judge Sonia Sotomayor. She hears emergency calls from New York.

Associated Press reporters MICHAEL HILL, MICHAEL R. SISAK and LINDY WHITEHURST contributed to this report.