{"id":121692,"date":"2025-01-07T02:00:00","date_gmt":"2025-01-07T02:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/judge-denies-trump-request-to-stop-sentencing-ahead-of-inauguration-bbc-com\/"},"modified":"2025-01-07T02:00:00","modified_gmt":"2025-01-07T02:00:00","slug":"judge-denies-trump-request-to-stop-sentencing-ahead-of-inauguration-bbc-com","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/judge-denies-trump-request-to-stop-sentencing-ahead-of-inauguration-bbc-com\/","title":{"rendered":"Judge denies Trump request to stop sentencing ahead of inauguration &#8211; BBC.com"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>A New York judge will not delay this Friday&#x27;s sentencing of President-elect Donald Trump in his felony hush money case.<!-- --><br \/>Justice Juan Merchan said the sentencing would proceed as Trump&#x27;s arguments against it &quot;are for the most part, a repetition of the arguments he has raised numerous times in the past&quot;.<!-- --><br \/>In court filings, Trump&#x27;s attorneys had argued that they sought &quot;a dismissal of this politically motivated prosecution that was flawed from the very beginning&quot;. His legal team is seeking a hearing on the matter with the appellate court. <!-- --><br \/>Trump was found guilty on 34 felony counts of falsifying business records in May, making him the first former president convicted of a crime. <!-- --><br \/>&quot;Defendant&#x27;s motion for a stay of these proceedings, including the sentencing hearing scheduled for January 10, 2025, is hereby DENIED,&quot; Justice Merchan wrote in his decision on Monday.<!-- --><br \/>The charges stemmed from Trump&#x27;s attempt to disguise reimbursements for a $130,000 hush money payment to an adult film star as legal expenses. <!-- --><br \/>Trump pleaded not guilty and denied any wrongdoing. His lawyers said that filing an appeal should halt the criminal proceedings in his New York case.<!-- --><br \/>The sentencing had been delayed repeatedly by the 2024 presidential election and Trump&#x27;s attempt to have the case thrown out based on a claim of presidential immunity. Justice Merchan ultimately rejected the immunity argument in December.<!-- --><br \/>On 3 January, Justice Merchan issued an order saying he would move ahead with the sentencing before Trump takes office on 20 January, but made clear he would not consider any custodial term.<!-- --><br \/>He indicated he would instead issue a sentence of an &quot;unconditional discharge&quot;, which means no prison, fine or probation.<!-- --><br \/>Justice Merchan ordered Trump to appear virtually or in-person for the hearing. <!-- --><br \/>Steven Cheung, spokesman for Trump&#x27;s presidential transition, reiterated his argument that the prosecution was unlawful.<!-- --><br \/>He said in a statement: &quot;The American People elected President Trump with an overwhelming mandate that demands an immediate end to the political weaponisation of our justice system and all of the remaining Witch Hunts.&quot;<!-- --><br \/>Trump&#x27;s team has not publicly commented on whether the president-elect will be in court this Friday.<!-- --><br \/>But in its response on Monday afternoon to the request for a stay, the Manhattan district attorney&#x27;s office referred to the &quot;defendant&#x27;s decision to appear for sentencing virtually instead of in person&quot;. <!-- --><br \/>The reference to a virtual hearing was repeated again several pages later.<!-- --><br \/>In the response, the district attorney asked the judge to deny Trump&#x27;s request for an immediate stay of his sentencing, and argued he would not be prejudiced by such a decision.<!-- --><br \/>The weeks after the election featured a flurry of legal filings from both Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg, who brought the case, and Trump&#x27;s legal team.<!-- --><br \/>Bragg&#x27;s office had previously indicated that they would not oppose delaying Trump&#x27;s sentencing until after he finishes his term in office, four years from now. <!-- --><br \/>But after Justice Merchan decided to move ahead with the sentencing, Bragg asked the judge to proceed with sentencing on Friday.<!-- --><br \/>In his order last week, Justice Merchan wrote that &quot;it is this court&#x27;s firm belief that only by bringing finality to this matter&quot; would the legal quandaries at play be resolved.<!-- --><br \/>However, the judge left the door open to further Trump legal challenges, writing that he &quot;must be permitted to avail himself of every available appeal&quot;.<!-- --><br \/>It comes as Ukraine&#x27;s president says only the US can provide security guarantees leading to an end to the war.<br \/>The president-elect says Greenland &quot;will benefit tremendously if, and when, it becomes part of our nation&quot;. <br \/>The former New York mayor falsely accused two Georgia election workers of tampering with votes during the 2020 election.<br \/>Seven US states declared emergencies owing to the polar vortex of icy air that usually circles the North Pole. <br \/>Michael Barr had been a target of Republicans for his call for stricter oversight of banks.<br \/>Copyright 2025 BBC. All rights reserved.\u00a0<!-- --><i id=\"\" class=\"sc-7dcfb11b-0 kKcaog\">\u00a0<!-- --><\/i>The<!-- --><i id=\"bbc\" class=\"sc-7dcfb11b-0 kKcaog\"> BBC <!-- --><\/i>is<!-- --><i id=\"not-responsible-for-the-content-of-external-sites.\" class=\"sc-7dcfb11b-0 kKcaog\"> not responsible for the content of external sites.<!-- --><\/i>\u00a0<!-- --><a target=\"_self\" href=\"https:\/\/www.bbc.co.uk\/editorialguidelines\/guidance\/feeds-and-links\" class=\"sc-c9299ecf-0 bZUiKB\"><b id=\"read-about-our-approach-to-external-linking.\" class=\"sc-7dcfb11b-0 kVRnKf\">Read about our approach to external linking.<!-- --><\/b><\/a><br \/>\u00a0<!-- --><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/news.google.com\/rss\/articles\/CBMiWkFVX3lxTFBWMUxiZ2JFX2x0d2FiRVRaZFUtSTJ0Qmd4eWNoQkE4LUpmbW4yQkxBbkJQc1QyMGp3Z1M2eXhzOUZwSE54NnFjSnZPVDdKaXJ2STIxc2htc0hhQdIBX0FVX3lxTE43dnpjbjdCVlY4b3RmSzFLeW5lb0dYVHUwOG9qOFo4c1dOd2JDWXhIRmJXc05Nc1BrY2o4Q0VHOWd4ZGJ5SEJjUzhPRW44dHZnZlRubWxaRXZ0bEQ1RG5z?oc=5\">source<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A New York judge will not delay this Friday&#x27;s sentencing of President-elect Donald Trump in his felony hush money case.Justice Juan Merchan said the sentencing would proceed as Trump&#x27;s arguments against it &quot;are for the most part, a repetition of the arguments he has raised numerous times in the past&quot;.In court filings, Trump&#x27;s attorneys had [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":121693,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-121692","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-us","8":"entry"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/121692","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=121692"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/121692\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/121693"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=121692"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=121692"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=121692"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}