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Donald Trump to be Sentenced Over Hush Money Conviction Today as Inauguration Looms After Supreme Court Verdict: Live

Donald Trump is set to be sentenced by Judge Juan Merchan in Manhattan Criminal Court on Friday morning after he was found guilty on all counts at his hush money trial last year – just 10 days before his second inauguration to the presidency.

The Supreme Court declined to stop the sentencing on Thursday, its justices ruling 5-4 in favor of allowing Judge Merchan to proceed. The president-elect will therefore appear virtually for the sentencing hearing at 9.30am ET today, with an “unconditional discharge” sentence expected after he was convicted for falsifying business records to hide a payment to the porn star Stormy Daniels in October 2016 to ensure her silence ahead of Election Day about an extramarital sexual encounter she alleges they had a decade earlier.

Trump called the SCOTUS decision “fair” on Thursday but insisted he would be filing a fresh appeal.

Also yesterday, the president-elect attended the funeral of former president Jimmy Carter in Washington DC, sitting alongside fellow commanders-in-chief Joe Biden, Barack Obama, George W Bush and Bill Clinton. He has otherwise been promoting his dreams of acquiring Canada and Greenland and attacking California Governor Gavin Newsom over the Los Angeles wildfires.

Key Points

• Donald Trump’s hush money sentencing to go ahead on Friday after Supreme Court declines to block it
• Trump promises Vladimir Putin meeting: ‘We are setting it up’
• Special counsel’s report on Trump January 6 investigation can be released, appeals court rules
• Elon Musk admits DOGE won’t find $2 trillion worth of cuts in federal budget
• Letter signed by 15,000 doctors asks Senate to reject RFK Jr confirmation
• Biden to start last week of term with speech on foreign policy legacy

President Joe Biden to Begin Final Week in Office with Speech on Foreign Policy Legacy

President Joe Biden will begin his final week in the White House with a major address aimed at summing up what he considers his administration’s critical work on restoring American alliances and leadership that he will deliver at the State Department on Monday.

A senior administration official described what he viewed as the bleak situation the United States faced on the world stage as Biden grabbed the reins of government from the outgoing Trump administration, during which US alliances “had been badly damaged” by the then former president (now president-elect) Donald Trump’s decision to walk away from “agreements that made America safer.”

Biden aims to “describe how we reclaimed America’s global leadership as a force of stability, put our adversaries in a position of weakness, effectively navigated turbulence around the world and made America stronger,” the official said.

Andrew Feinberg reports.

Biden to Kick Off Last Week in Office with Speech on Foreign Policy Legacy

President Joe Biden will begin his final week in the White House with a major address aimed at summing up what he considers his administration’s critical work on restoring American alliances and leadership that he will deliver at the State Department on Monday.

A senior administration official described what he viewed as the bleak situation the United States faced on the world stage as Biden grabbed the reins of government from the outgoing Trump administration, during which US alliances “had been badly damaged” by the then former president (now president-elect) Donald Trump’s decision to walk away from “agreements that made America safer.”

Biden aims to “describe how we reclaimed America’s global leadership as a force of stability, put our adversaries in a position of weakness, effectively navigated turbulence around the world and made America stronger,” the official said.

Trump’s Inaccurate Claims About LA Fires Mocked by Late-Night Hosts

Seth Meyers and The Daily Show’s Desi Lydic have been making fun of the president-elect over his unhelpful contributions to this week’s discourse over the disastrous Los Angeles wildfires.

Jacob Stolworthy has this report on what they had to say.

Mark Zuckerberg is Playing Politics with Trump – and Putting People at Risk

The Meta boss has decided to ditch fact-checkers and ask users to contest facts – or create alternative ones, write Alan Rusbridger and Khaled Mansour, who sit on the company’s oversight board.

Truth will take second place to rumour and we all risk paying an exorbitantly high price, they argue.

Trump to Finish the Ayatollahs in Iran, Says Mike Pompeo

The “rotten to the core” Khamenei regime is a “paper tiger” whose time is up, Donald Trump’s former secretary of state said.

Elon Musk admits DOGE won’t find $2 trillion worth of cuts in federal budget.

Letter signed by 15,000 doctors asks Senate to reject RFK Jr confirmation.

Biden to start last week of term with speech on foreign policy legacy.

Appeals Court Refuses to Delay Trump Sentencing in Hush-Money Case

A New York appeals court has denied Donald Trump’s 11th-hour bid to delay his Friday sentencing in his felony hush money case.

Justice Merchan rejected Trump’s bid in a Jan. 6 ruling, and Trump is asking an appeals court to step in.

The Manhattan district attorney’s office had previously argued that Merchan could sentence Trump once his term in office is done, a position Trump’s attorneys said should be denied because he’d have the prospect of a criminal sentencing hanging over his head for the duration of his time in office.

“Binding precedent does not provide that an individual, upon becoming President, can retroactively dismiss or vacate prior criminal acts nor does it grant blanket Presidential-elect immunity,” Merchan said in the filing.

“This Court is therefore forbidden from recognizing either form of immunity.”

Hush Money Case

Trump was convicted in New York state court in May of 34 counts of falsifying business records related to a hush money payment his then-lawyer Michael Cohen paid porn star Stormy Daniels in the closing days of the 2016 presidential election.

Daniels claimed she had a sexual encounter with Trump in 2006, an allegation he has denied.

Trump, who pleaded not guilty to the charges, was initially set to be sentenced in July, a date that got pushed back after the U.S. Supreme Court issued a decision that created a new standard for presidential immunity.

His attorneys argued that the high court’s ruling meant the indictment and conviction should be tossed out, since they relied in part on evidence related to Trump’s time in office.

Judge Juan Merchan rejected that argument in a Dec. 16 ruling.

Weeks later on Jan. 3, he denied a separate more sweeping motion to dismiss the case and announced that he would sentence the president-elect on Jan. 10, just days before Trump is administered the oath of office.

Merchan said that Trump would not be incarcerated, though.

“Finding no legal impediment to sentencing and recognizing that Presidential immunity will likely attach once Defendant takes his Oath of Office, it is incumbent upon this Court to set this matter down for the imposition of sentence prior to January 20, 2025,” Merchan said in his Jan. 3 order.

Trump’s attorneys sought to block the sentencing by asking Merchan to put the hearing on hold while he appeals.

The judge rejected Trump’s bid in a Jan. 6 ruling, and Trump is asking an appeals court to step in.

Georgia Election Interference Case

Fulton County, Georgia, District Attorney Fani Willis’ office indicted Trump and 18 co-defendants in August 2023 on charges of conspiring to illegally overturn his 2020 election loss to Joe Biden in the state.

Trump pleaded not guilty.

No trial date was ever set in the case, which was stalled for several months over allegations of conflict of interest involving Willis.