(NEW YORK) -- The New York Court of Appeals, the highest court in the state, has denied President-elect Donald Trump's request to halt his sentencing Friday in his criminal hush money case.
Trump on Wednesday launched an eleventh-hour request to New York's highest court to pause the hush money case, on the same day that he also asked the U.S. Supreme Court to halt his sentencing.
Prosecutors with the Manhattan district attorney's office argued in a Thursday morning filing, before the court made its ruling, that Trump's argument to delay his sentencing rests on an "utterly baseless" concept of president-elect immunity.
Responding to Trump's argument, lawyers for Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg urged the New York Court of Appeals to reject Trump's request for a delay because a president-elect does not benefit from the immunity reserved for the sitting president.
"The President-elect is, by definition, not yet the President," the filing said. "The President-elect therefore does not perform any Article II functions under the Constitution, and there are no Article II functions that would be burdened by ordinary criminal process involving the President-elect."
Trump is scheduled to be sentenced Friday after he was found guilty in May on 34 felony counts of falsifying business records related to a hush money payment made to adult film actress Stormy Daniels in order to boost his electoral prospects in the 2016 presidential election.
Bragg also urged the U.S. Supreme Court on Thursday to reject Trump's request to block his sentencing, on the grounds that "there is no basis" for the country's highest court to intervene.
"Defendant now asks this Court to take the extraordinary step of intervening in a pending state criminal trial to prevent the scheduled sentencing from taking place -- before final judgment has been entered by the trial court, and before any direct appellate review of defendant's conviction. There is no basis for such intervention," Bragg wrote to the court.
Prosecutors argued that presidential immunity does not extend to Trump, who does not take office until Jan. 20.
"It is axiomatic that there is only one President at a time," Bragg said. "No judicial decision or guidance from the Department of Justice has ever recognized that the unique temporary immunity of the sitting President extends to the President-elect."
The district attorney's office warned that delaying Trump's sentencing would only make things worse, arguing "any stay here risks delaying the sentencing until after January 20, when defendant is inaugurated and his status as the sitting President will pose much more severe and potentially insuperable obstacles to sentencing and finality."
Prosecutors told the New York Court of Appeals that the jury in Trump's trial saw "overwhelming" evidence of Trump's guilt. The filing also criticized the president-elect's conduct in court.
"And notwithstanding defendant's past and upcoming service as President, his history, character, and condition -- and especially his open disregard for the justice system -- do not support dismissal," the filing said.
Prosecutors criticized Trump for repeatedly delaying the sentencing -- leading to the Jan. 10 sentencing date -- and exaggerating the harm he would face if the sentencing continued as planned.
Trump faces up to four years in prison, but New York Judge Juan Merchan has signaled that he plans to sentence Trump to an unconditional discharge -- effectively a blemish on Trump's record, without prison, fines or probation -- in order to respect Trump's transition efforts and the principle of presidential immunity.
Prosecutors highlighted in their New York Court of Appeals filing that Merchan intends to sentence Trump to the lowest allowable sentence.
"Indeed, if defendant is ever to be sentenced in this proceeding, the least burdensome time to do so is now, before his inauguration on January 20, 2025," the filing said.
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