President-elect Donald Trump will be sentenced Friday in his New York hush money case after the Supreme Court refused to postpone the sentencing. The decision was made in a 5-4 ruling Thursday evening.
But America's highest court rejected the emergency request; four conservative justices – Clarence Thomas, Samuel Alito, Neil Gorsuch and Brett Kavanaugh – said they would have granted Trump’s request.
© Fred Schilling, Collection of thIn a brief statement, the court said that Trump’s concerns could be handled “in the ordinary course on appeal," and that the burden of sentencing would impose "relatively insubstantial" restrictions on Trump in light of the New York judge who oversaw Trump’s trial signaling that the 78-year-old will face neither penalties nor prison time.
The hush money trial first began on April 15 2024, one year after the President-elect was charged with 34 felony counts for falsifying business records in an attempt to silence his alleged mistress, Stormy Daniels, ahead of his 2016 run for president, which prosecutor Alvin Bragg claimed directly impacted the election.
© Getty ImagesIn May 2024 a jury found the former president guilty on all counts of the 34 counts.
The jury, which was made up of five women and seven men, had in a total of 11 hours of deliberation, and announced they had reached a unanimous decision around 4:30pm on Thursday.
© Getty ImagesReacting to the news, Trump continued his recurring spiel that the trial was rigged, telling reporters shortly after the verdict was read: "Our whole country is being rigged right now. This was done by the Biden administration in order to wound or hurt an opponent, a political opponent."
The sentencing date was originally delayed to come after the November 5 election date and Trump has taken his case all the way to the Supreme Court to ask for it to postponed further.
© GettyTrump is poised to return to the White House as the 47th President of the United States on January, 20, 2025 after he was elected in the November election.
However, prior to his election, Trump was dealing with a slew of criminal and civil cases against him. As well as the hush money trial, he was under investigation by U.S. Special Counsel Jack Smith for allegations he had attempts to cover up the 2020 election.
Trump has stated in previous interviews that he will fire Smith within "two seconds" of swearing in.
© Getty ImagesDays before the sentencing news, Trump shared a furious statement after being told the United States flags will still be at half-staff during his inauguration on January 20, 2025.
The flags have been lowered in honor of the late President Jimmy Carter, who died at age 100 on December 29 2024; Trump attended his funeral on January 9, 2025.
"The Democrats are all 'giddy' about our magnificent American Flag potentially being at 'half mast' during my Inauguration,” the president-elect wrote on January, 3 2025.
He continued: "In any event, because of the death of President Jimmy Carter, the Flag may, for the first time ever during an Inauguration of a future President, be at half mast. Nobody wants to see this, and no American can be happy about it. Let’s see how it plays out. MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!"
Following the death of a president or a former president, the US flag is flown at half-staff for the subsequent 30 days at "all federal buildings, grounds, and naval vessels" according to the United States Department of Veteran Affairs.
Trump's claim that this would be the first time the flag is at half-staff for an inauguration is false; in 1973, when President Richard Nixon was inaugurated, all flags on the Capitol were at half‐staff in memory of President Harry S. Truman.
