by WorldTribune Staff, January 10, 2025 Real World News
With Chief Justice John Roberts and Trump-appointed Justice Amy Coney Barrett joining the liberals, the United States Supreme Court on Thursday denied President-elect Donald Trump’s petition to block his Friday sentencing in the New York “hush money” lawfare case.
The decision which led to the branding of Trump as a “convicted felon” on January 10, 2025 angered critics of the Supreme Court who noted that “conservative” justices named by Trump during his first term has been nominated based on the advice of Leonard Leo of the Federalist Society.
As the Yale Daily News noted, Leo had played an outsized role in selecting conservative justices including the 2017 appointment of Neil Gorsuch.
Trump’s later appointments of Brett Kavanaugh and Amy Coney Barrett, also Federalist Society affiliates, were under Leo’s counseling, as well. This aligned with a promise that Trump had made earlier in 2016 during his election campaign: if elected, his judicial nominees would “all [be] picked by the Federalist Society.”
Over 40 years of building the Federalist Society,Leo “focused on identifying sources of funding for the organization, developing relationships with donors such as the Koch Family Foundation and the Scaife Foundation,” the article noted.
Trump filed an emergency petition to the U.S. Supreme Court on Wednesday in an effort to prevent his Jan. 10 sentencing, scheduled by Judge Juan Merchan, from taking place.
“The application for stay presented to Justice Sotomayor and by her referred to the Court is denied for, inter alia, the following reasons. First, the alleged evidentiary violations at President-Elect Trump’s state-court trial can be addressed in the ordinary course on appeal,” the order states.
“Second, the burden that sentencing will impose on the President-Elect’s responsibilities is relatively insubstantial in light of the trial court’s stated intent to impose a sentence of unconditional discharge’ after a brief virtual hearing,” the court ruled.
The order also noted that “Justice Thomas, Justice Alito, Justice Gorsuch, and Justice Kavanaugh would grant the application.”
Trump’s lawyers, in their petition to the high court, said it should “immediately order a stay of pending criminal proceedings in the Supreme Court of New York County, New York, pending the final resolution of President Trump’s interlocutory appeal raising questions of Presidential immunity, including in this Court if necessary.”
Trump’s attorneys also argued that New York prosecutors erroneously admitted extensive evidence relating to official presidential acts during trial, ignoring the high court’s ruling on presidential immunity.
The Supreme Court, earlier this year, ruled that presidents are immune from prosecution related to official presidential acts.
While Trump now is free to appeal the case, what the high court did, critics say, is give Democrats and their major media allies the opportunity to refer to Trump as the first “convicted felon” president, which they happily seized upon as soon as Friday’s proceeding were concluded.
Merchan on Friday morning sentenced Trump to an “unconditional discharge,” meaning no jail time, fines, or probation.
Human Events editor Jack Posobiec noted: “Trump spoke at his sentencing and started by telling the entire court the voters of the nation rejected them completely, then started going through his popular vote and swing state results.”
Trump just said in court: “Michael Cohen was allowed to talk like George Washington…but he’s not George Washington.”
Trump posted to Truth Social following the Supreme Court’s decision:
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. It’s called Lawfare, and nothing like this has ever happened in the United States of America, and it should never be allowed to happen again. To this day, this highly political and corrupt Judge has put a gag order on me, which takes away my First Amendment right to speak about very important aspects of the case. For the sake and sanctity of the Presidency, I will be appealing this case, and am confident that JUSTICE WILL PREVAIL. The pathetic, dying remnants of the Witch Hunts against me will not distract us as we unite and, MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!
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