Speaking with a hoarse voice from the lower Manhattan courtroom, Arkan, 76, admitted to orchestrating straw donations to Adams’ mayoral campaign through workers of the construction company he partly owns, KSK, and then reimbursing them. Arkan indicated he planned to enter the plea last month — the first resulting from the ongoing probe of illicit foreign donations to the mayor’s campaign.

“When I wrote the checks, I knew the Eric Adams campaign would use the checks to apply for public matching funds,” Arkan said, referring to the system under which city political candidates get donations from local residents matched eightfold with city dollars.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Celia Cohen told the court that if Arkan had gone to trial, prosecutors would have provided testimony, photographs, video electronic records, and other evidence to establish he illegally colluded with a Turkish consular official to funnel money to the mayoral campaign that Adams personally solicited at a restaurant in April 2021. Manhattan Federal Court Judge Dale Ho accepted Arkan’s plea and set his sentencing for Aug. 15.

While it wasn’t stated that the plea deal requires Arkan to testify against the mayor, his cooperation in the feds’ ongoing corruption investigation is all but certain, with Cohen asking his sentencing to be scheduled after Adams’ April trial. It is common for federal defendants who take plea deals to agree to testify or cooperate with prosecutors in exchange for leniency at sentencing.

The plea comes as prosecutors with the Manhattan U.S. attorney’s office recently said in a filing they’d uncovered “additional criminal conduct” the mayor and others engaged in and may bring more charges.

Were Arkan to testify, though, Adams’ defense team believes he would have nothing incriminating to say about the mayor.

“We know from the government’s own interviews that Mr. Arkan repeatedly said that Mayor Adams had no knowledge of his actions.” Adams’ attorney, Alex Spiro, said in a statement. “Mr. Arkan’s conduct will have no bearing on the mayor’s case whatsoever.”

Adams is accused of soliciting and accepting illegal straw donations from Arkan and others, as well as luxury travel upgrades and perks in exchange for doling out political favors for the Turkish government. He is expected to head to trial on the five counts of bribery, conspiracy and wire fraud in April — just two months before he’s up for reelection in the June primary.

He has pleaded not guilty.

Arkan appears in Adams’ indictment as “Businessman #5.” Per the indictment, he hosted a fundraiser for the soon-to-be mayor at his firm’s Brooklyn office in May 2021, a month after the dinner with the mayor mentioned in court Friday. On the day of the fundraiser, records show that Arkan and 10 employees of the firm donated nearly $14,000 cumulatively to Adams’ campaign, for which Arkan reimbursed them.

Records show that after submitting those contributions for public matching funds, the Adams campaign raked in an additional $22,000 in taxpayers’ cash off of them.

All of those donations were illegal straw contributions funded by Arkan and made “at the behest of” Reyhan Ozgur, Turkey’s consul general in New York, according to Adams’ indictment. Ozgur and Arkan allegedly agreed to make the illegal donations during the dinner with Adams in April 2021.

“We are supporting you,” Ozgur told Adams at that dinner, according to court papers.

As part of his plea, Arkan agreed to making $18,000 restitution payments and not to contest a sentence below six months. He also faces the risk of being denaturalized, deported, and denied entry to the U.S. in the future, Ho warned him.

The offense Arkan pleaded to could result in a maximum of up to five years in federal prison, three years supervised release and $250,000 in fines.

Arkan’s attorney, Jonathan Rosen, had no comment after Friday’s plea hearing.

Manhattan Supreme Court Justice Juan Merchan said the only lawful sentence he could impose was an unconditional discharge, meaning no jail time, probation, or fines other than around $375 in mandatory court fees, based on the expansive legal protections afforded to the president. 

“Despite the extraordinary breadth of those protections, one power they do not provide is the power to erase a jury verdict,” the judge said, adding they also didn’t diminish or justify the severity of the crimes of which Trump was found guilty.

“Donald Trump, the ordinary citizen — Donald Trump, the criminal defendant — would not be entitled to such considerable protections.” 

The president-elect appeared remotely for the 15th-floor proceeding in lower Manhattan’s 100 Centre St. on Microsoft Teams via Florida, with two American flags as his backdrop. He wore a black suit and a red striped tie and ignored Merchan when the judge wished him a good morning.

In comments to the court, Assistant District Attorney Joshua Steinglass said prosecutors recommended Trump receive an unconditional discharge based on his status as president-elect.

Regarding Trump’s potential remorse, Steinglass pointed to a line in the nonpublic report filed by Trump’s probation officer, who “noted that the defendant sees himself as above the law and won’t accept responsibility for his actions.”

Steinglass said Trump’s public rhetoric before and after the trial had legitimately endangered officials involved in the case and their families.

“Far from expressing any kind of remorse for his criminal conduct, the defendant has purposefully bred disdain for our judicial institutions and the rule of law. And he’s done this to serve his own ends and to encourage others to reject the jury verdict that he finds so distasteful,” Steinglass said, noting Trump had “ratcheted up” his bombast since Merchan had denied his bids to throw out the verdict. 

“He has been unrelenting in his unsubstantiated attacks upon this court and its family, individual prosecutors and their families, the witnesses, the grand jury, the trial jury and the justice system as a whole.”

The prosecutor said Trump’s threats to retaliate against prosecutors and his other “dangerous rhetoric” sought to have a chilling effect and to intimidate law enforcement “in the hopes that they will ignore the defendant’s transgressions because they fear that he is simply too powerful to be subjected to the same rule of law as the rest of us.”

Trump’s lawyer, Todd Blanche, who accompanied him in Florida, said he disagreed with Steinglass’ characterizations. Trump has nominated Blanche to be second-in-command at the Department of Justice. 

When it was Trump’s turn to speak — a moment defendants often use to express remorse in a bid for leniency — the former president singled out prosecutors, talked about his election victory, and riffed on several other topics. He said the case was brought to destroy his reputation and lose him the election, “and, obviously, that didn’t work.”

“The fact is that I’m totally innocent. I did nothing wrong,” Trump said. “I just want to say I think it’s an embarrassment to New York, and New York has a lot of problems, but this is a great embarrassment.”

The president-elect, who incessantly sought to get his case thrown out after a grand jury indicted him in spring 2023, mounted a furious effort to dodge the sentencing, targeting delay bids at four courts. The Supreme Court had the last say in an order late Thursday, in a 5-4 ruling showing the justices were unpersuaded by his claim the hearing would unduly burden his presidential transition.

While the significance of Friday’s proceeding largely came down to symbolism and procedure, it cemented Trump’s status as the first and only U.S. president to be tried and convicted. Trump vowed on Truth Social later Friday to appeal his conviction.

The anonymous Manhattan jury who decided the case found him guilty of 34 felony counts of first-degree falsifying business records on May 30, for which he was initially supposed to be sentenced on July 11. None of the jurors have spoken publicly about their service.

The criminal case centered on Trump’s coverup of payments to Michael Cohen that reimbursed his longtime fixer for silencing porn star Stormy Daniels with $130,000 in the lead-up to the 2016 election, which Trump misclassified as payment for Cohen’s legal services. The porn actor has long claimed she had a sordid encounter with Trump in a Lake Tahoe hotel room in 2006, which he denies.

Jurors heard over the more than monthlong trial that Cohen, Trump, and tabloid publisher David Pecker devised a scheme to control what voters knew about Trump’s past in August 2015. Prosecutors argued that the “catch and kill” conspiracy violated New York election law and could be what got Trump elected in 2016.

Former Playboy model Karen McDougal and a doorman at Trump Tower also received payoffs to suppress their allegations of Trump’s sexual exploits, evidence showed, and jurors heard Trump expressed relief that the media didn’t report on Cohen’s payment to Daniels before the election.

In his courtroom remarks, Trump took aim at Cohen, saying, “This is a man who has got no standing. He has been disbarred on other matters unrelated. And he was allowed to talk as though he was George Washington, but he is not George Washington.” 

Trump was placed under a gag order at the trial, which is expected to expire Friday after he spread unfounded conspiracies about Merchan’s daughter online. The order he violated at least 10 times barred him from discussing trial participants, including prosecutors, court staff, and their families, but not the judge or Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg. 

While he has repeatedly cast himself as a victim of political persecution, a weaponized justice system, and racism against white people by Black prosecutors, Trump’s experience of being found guilty of felonies without consequence is unique.

Facing the prospect of four years in prison on any one of the charges seven months ago, he will instead spend them in the White House.

Bragg’s case was the only one of four brought against Trump after his first term that went before a jury. 

Federal prosecutors recently moved to dismiss two actions accusing him of plotting to overthrow President Biden’s win in 2020 and hoarding classified documents at his country clubs after leaving office – which could have led to steep prison sentences.

Through his second term, he will be protected from the Georgia state case concerning his alleged election subversion efforts.

In his courtroom remarks, Merchan said imposing a sentence was one of a judge’s most challenging decisions. He said the extraordinary legal protections afforded to the office of the chief executive “is a factor that overrides all others” he must respect and follow. 

“I’m referring to protections that extend well beyond those afforded the average defendant who winds their way through the criminal justice system each day. No, ordinary citizens do not receive those legal protections,” Merchan said, looking at Trump. 

“It was the citizenry of this nation that recently decided that you should once again receive the benefits of those protections … It is through that lens and that reality that this court must determine a lawful sentence,” the judge added, formally imposing the sentence.

“Sir, I wish you Godspeed as you assume your second term in office.”

The president-elect is expected to appear virtually at lower Manhattan’s 100 Centre St at 9:30 a.m. before state Supreme Court Justice Juan Merchan, who’s said he plans to impose an unconditional discharge, meaning no prison time.

Trump tried to dodge being sentenced in every way he could, firing off a barrage of appeals to four different courts after Merchan scheduled the sentencing last week. The Supreme Court had the last word late Thursday, denying Trump’s request to stop the sentencing from going ahead.

Here’s what to know ahead of the historic hearing.

1. What’s an unconditional discharge?

The sentence Merchan has said he’s “inclined” to impose means what it sounds like — instead of being thrown behind bars, Trump will be discharged without any conditions. 

More typically heard of for Manhattan defendants who receive lenient terms is a “conditional’ discharge, which could see a judge agree to release someone if they agree not to get rearrested for a certain period, attend anger management sessions, go to counseling, do community service, or participate in other forms of rehabilitation.

Often, the agreement can include quitting one’s job if it was where the offense took place. 

Last week, Merchan said Trump’s conviction authorized a term of incarceration — the charges carry up to four years — but that was no longer a “practicable recommendation,” as prosecutors had conceded, with Trump set to return to office. 

Merchan said his proposed sentence would be “the most viable solution to ensure finality” and allow Trump to pursue an appeal of his conviction, which he can’t do until after sentencing. 

2. What will happen at the hearing?

With Trump set to appear virtually, the proceeding will differ from his attendance at trial, which saw him accompanied by the Secret Service each day and attendees subjected to rigorous security checks. 

Merchan is expected to hear from prosecutors before he hands down the sentence. Trump will also have a chance to address the court, which many defendants use as an opportunity to convince the judge of their remorse. Trump continues to maintain his innocence and has said he will appeal.

Sentencings also frequently feature victim impact statements, though it’s not clear whether prosecutors have anyone lined up to speak about harm suffered as a result of the hush money scheme. 

3. What exactly did Trump do?

On May 30, Trump was found guilty of falsifying 34 New York business records in 2017 after he had moved into the White House – representing 11 checks to his former lawyer and fixer Michael Cohen, 11 corresponding invoices, and 12 ledger entries.

The payments reimbursed Cohen for the $130,000 he paid porn star Stormy Daniels 11 days before the 2016 election so she wouldn’t go public with her account of an alleged sordid sexual encounter with Trump in 2006. 

Prosecutors alleged Trump falsified the records to cover up the scheme that violated a New York law that makes it illegal for people to conspire to promote or prevent a person’s election to public office by unlawful means, like tax crimes, campaign finance violations and falsifying bank records.

Cohen and tabloid publisher David Pecker at trial testified that they devised the scheme to get Trump into office in August 2015, planning with Trump to hide unflattering information about his past from voters and ruin the reputations of his opponents.

In addition to Daniels, the men coordinated silencing former Playboy model Karen McDougal about her claims of a monthslong affair with Trump and Dino Sajudin, a doorman who wanted to sell a story about Trump fathering a child with a maid out of wedlock.

Trump wasn’t the first person to be found guilty in connection to the scheme. Cohen pleaded guilty to federal crimes in 2018, including violating campaign finance laws, and received a three-year sentence. 

Pecker received immunity for his cooperation in Cohen and Trump’s cases and effectively served as the star witness at Trump’s trial, where he told jurors he was still fond of the former president. 

4. Will Trump’s conviction have any impact on his presidency?

Given his status as the incoming commander-in-chief, in addition to his wealth, Trump is not expected to face the same setbacks New Yorkers convicted of felonies commonly struggle with in finding employment or accessing housing. He’s covered for the next four years.

As Trump is a U.S. citizen, he’s not at risk of deportation. Some countries have restrictions for tourists with criminal records — including Canada, the U.K., Australia, Japan and Mexico — which means Trump could, in theory, need to apply for a waiver to travel to certain nations.

As a felon, Trump won’t be able to own a gun or serve on a jury anytime soon. Had he been convicted in another state, he might have lost his right to vote, but New York allows convicted felons to vote if they are not incarcerated. 

The conviction will have little to no meaningful impact on Trump’s life compared to the outcomes of several civil cases in New York where he is facing financial penalties. 

In February 2024, a Manhattan judge ordered Trump to pay around $455 million, including interest, to the New York attorney general after finding him liable for manipulating the value of his real estate assets by a matter of billions of dollars for years. Trump has appealed the judgment and is awaiting an answer from a midlevel New York appeals court. 

And Trump owes E. Jean Carroll a total of $88.8 million after being found liable for sexually abusing her in a Midtown dressing room in the nineties and defaming her during his first term in office and after. Trump is also appealing the judgments in that case.

5. What about Trump’s other cases?

The criminal case brought by Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg was the first of four filed against Trump after his first term and the only one to make it before a jury. 

In June 2023, the Department of Justice charged him with hoarding classified documents impacting national security after leaving office and poorly storing them at his Mar-a-Lago resort. The DOJ moved to close the case after his election victory. Had that case made it to trial and Trump been found guilty, he could have faced up to 100 years in prison. 

Months later, in August 2023, the DOJ brought another indictment against Trump, charging him with conspiracy to defraud the U.S., conspiracy to disrupt an official proceeding, and related offenses for his alleged efforts to subvert the results of the 2020 presidential election. Those charges, which were also dismissed after his election victory, carried decades in prison. 

A federal appeals court on Thursday said that special counsel Jack Smith, who handled the federal cases against Trump, could release a report into his investigation in the election subversion case. Trump’s lawyers have aggressively sought to stop the report’s release. It does not appear the DOJ will release a report on the classified documents case anytime soon.

Weeks after the D.C. indictment, Trump was charged in a fourth case in Fulton County, Ga., concerning his alleged efforts to overturn President Biden’s win in Georgia. The case has been heavily backlogged, including with DA Fani Willis recently being removed after a Georgia appeals court found her relationship with a special prosecutor created an “appearance of impropriety.” Trump will be protected from the state-level prosecution in Georgia while he’s president. 

In a 5-4 decision, the nation’s high court denied Trump’s request for an emergency stay, or pause, of the criminal proceedings in his Manhattan case as he fights a set of rulings by state Supreme Court Justice Juan Merchan, meaning the proceeding will go forward Friday.

The judges were not moved by Trump’s claim that the sentencing would pose an undue burden as he prepares to take office on Jan. 20.

“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’s order read, referencing Merchan’s signal last week that he would not impose any punishment.

Chief Justice John Roberts and Trump-appointee Justice Amy Coney Barrett sided with the court’s three liberal justices in rejecting Trump’s bid. Justice Clarence Thomas, Justice Samuel Alito, Justice Neil Gorsuch, and Justice Brett Kavanaugh would have granted the application, the order read.

Earlier Thursday, in asking the Supreme Court to reject Trump’s bid for a delay, prosecutors had warned pausing the sentencing threatened to delay him being brought to justice for years. They said now was the time to bring finality to the case in which Trump was found guilty of falsifying business records for covering up a payoff to porn star Stormy Daniels to suppress her story about an alleged sordid sexual encounter in a scheme that violated New York election law.

Trump’s flurry of last-minute appeals was sparked when Merchan unexpectedly scheduled his sentencing for Friday at 9:30 a.m. in a decision last week in which he refused to throw out the case. He said that the president-elect could appear for sentencing by video and that he was inclined to sentence him to an unconditional discharge, meaning he would not face jail time, fines, or probation. 

While Trump is not expected to face any form of punishment, the sentencing will formalize his conviction and officially classify him as a convicted felon just 10 days before his second presidential term begins, a first in history.

Trump’s lawyers failed to convince Merchan and two New York appeals courts to halt the sentencing. They asked the Supreme Court’s nine justices in a last-ditch attempt to intervene on Wednesday, arguing that the Constitution required the case to be paused as Trump tried to fight Merchan’s rulings in appeals hinging on Trump’s arguments that he is shielded from the criminal process by presidential immunity.

Among other arguments, Trump’s lawyers have said that he should receive immunity as the president-in-waiting and that Merchan should have barred evidence relating to his first presidency at his trial, including testimony from his former White House staffers about private conversations about hush money and threatening tweets directed at Michael Cohen from Trump’s presidential Twitter account.

The Supreme Court order Thursday said Trump’s complaints about evidence allowed at his trial could be addressed “in the ordinary course on appeal” and did not warrant intervention.

In opposing the request, prosecutors from Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s office argued that there was no basis for Supreme Court intervention and that Trump’s legal positions were unsupported by any court anywhere. 

Asking the Supreme Court to agree with multiple New York judges, they said the high court’s ruling from last year granting a president sweeping protections from criminal prosecution did not apply to the 2016 hush-money scheme, devised before Trump’s first presidency, or to Trump now as he prepares to retake office.

“[Defendant] makes the unprecedented claim that the temporary presidential immunity he will possess in the future fully immunizes him now, weeks before he even takes the oath of office, from all state-court criminal process,” prosecutors wrote. 

“This extraordinary immunity claim is unsupported by any decision from any court. It is axiomatic that there is only one President at a time.”

In a Truth Social post, Trump said he appreciated “the time and effort of the United States Supreme Court in trying to remedy the great injustice done to me,” and that he was innocent.

“For the sake and sanctity of the Presidency, I will be appealing this case, and am confident that JUSTICE WILL PREVAIL,” Trump wrote.

A spokeswoman for Bragg declined to comment.

The jury’s May 30 verdict found Trump, 78, guilty of 34 felony counts of falsifying business records stemming from a scheme to hide embarrassing details about his past from voters. 

The Manhattan case was the only one of four brought against Trump after his first term that made it before a jury. When he takes office, he cannot pardon himself of the state-level charges.

In a letter to Trump’s attorney, Todd Blanche, a New York Court of Appeals clerk said Associate Judge Jenny Rivera had reviewed a proposed order that Trump’s side submitted Wednesday seeking to halt the sentencing and had declined to sign it. Prosecutors from Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s office had opposed the request.

Trump is now waiting to see if the Supreme Court will step in at his behest and stop the proceeding from going forward on Friday. No ruling had been issued as of 7 p.m. Thursday.

His lawyers asked the nine justices to intervene in a request Wednesday, arguing that the judge who presided over Trump’s trial, Manhattan Supreme Court Justice Juan Merchan, wrongly refused to recognize his immunity during the trial and in trying to sentence him during his transition.

In prosecutors’ response to Trump’s Supreme Court bid, the Manhattan DA asked the high court on Thursday to deny the effort and said there was no basis for its intervention. 

“[Defendant] makes the unprecedented claim that the temporary presidential immunity he will possess in the future fully immunizes him now, weeks before he even takes the oath of office, from all state-court criminal process,” the filing read.

“This extraordinary immunity claim is unsupported by any decision from any court. It is axiomatic that there is only one President at a time.”

Merchan unexpectedly scheduled the proceeding to take place on Friday at 9:30 a.m. in a decision last week that upheld the guilty verdicts against Trump.

He rejected the notion that Trump’s election victory warranted throwing out the case and that the Supreme Court’s July decision on presidential immunity, which found that a president is mostly shielded from criminal liability for “official acts,” in any way protected Trump from legal proceedings as he prepares to retake office.

In December, Merchan found that the immunity decision did not bar prosecutors from presenting certain evidence at trial related to Trump’s unofficial conduct during his first stint in the White House.

Merchan said that the president-elect could appear for sentencing by video and that he was inclined to sentence him to an unconditional discharge, meaning he would not face jail time, fines, or probation. 

Though Trump is not expected to face any form of punishment, the sentencing would finalize his conviction and officially classify him as a convicted felon just 10 days before his second presidential term begins, a first in history.

Merchan declined to cancel the sentencing on Monday, responding to a weekend request from Trump, leading to a dizzying blitz of appeals. After a lower-level New York appeals court rejected his lawyer’s demands to halt the sentencing Tuesday and appeared heavily skeptical of the argument that Trump has presidential immunity as a president-in-waiting, Trump targeted appeals at the New York Court of Appeals and the Supreme Court.

His Supreme Court bid Wednesday said New York courts erred in denying his requests to stop the sentencing and that the Constitution required the case to be paused while Trump challenged Merchan’s rulings.

The emergency petition said the president-elect was “suffering grave irreparable injury from the disruption and distraction that the trial court abruptly inflicted by suddenly scheduling a sentencing hearing for the President-Elect of the United States, on five days’ notice, at the apex of the Presidential transition.” 

A jury on May 30 found Trump, 78, guilty of 34 felony counts of falsifying business records stemming from a scheme to hide embarrassing details about his past from voters in 2016 that violated New York election law.

The case centered on payments he made to Michael Cohen during his first year in the White House, which reimbursed his longtime former fixer for paying off porn star Stormy Daniels to silence her claims of a sordid sexual encounter with Trump in 2006.

The Manhattan case was the only one of four brought against Trump after his first term that made it before a jury. When he takes office, he cannot pardon himself of the state-level charges.

Please check back for updates.

The eleventh-hour request to the nation’s high court came a day after Trump’s attorney, Todd Blanche, failed to convince a New York appeals court to cancel the proceeding and let Trump fight rulings by the trial court judge, Manhattan Supreme Court Justice Juan Merchan. 

It asks the Supreme Court to resolve whether Trump is entitled to a pause in the proceedings, whether the admission of evidence at his trial violated the doctrine of presidential immunity, and whether a president-elect has the same immunity from prosecution as a sitting president.

“President Trump is already suffering grave irreparable injury from the disruption and distraction that the trial court abruptly inflicted by suddenly scheduling a sentencing hearing for the President-Elect of the United States, on five days’ notice, at the apex of the Presidential transition,” reads the emergency petition. 

“These harms continue to increase as the New York courts deny relief and the sentencing hearing approaches.”

Justice Sonia Sotomayor, assigned to emergency requests filed in New York, asked the Manhattan district attorney’s office to respond to the request by Thursday at 10 a.m.

Trump’s application was filed by his lawyers, John Sauer and Blanche, who he’s picked to serve in top roles at the Department of Justice. They indicated to the court that they’d first sought a pause of the sentencing from New York’s Court of Appeals, a step above the midlevel appeals court that denied Trump’s delay bid Tuesday. However, those papers were not filed until around 4 p.m., according to an official from New York’s highest court.

The application argues that Merchan wrongly refused to recognize Trump’s immunity by allowing specific evidence at his trial and trying to sentence him in his transition period.

Citing the 1865 children’s novel “Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland,” Sauer and Blanche wrote, “The New York courts’ insistence on holding a criminal sentencing before President Trump’s appeals on immunity are resolved reflects the justice of the Queen of Hearts: ‘Sentence first — verdict afterwards.’”

Merchan on Friday unexpectedly scheduled Trump’s sentencing for 10 days before his inauguration. He said that Trump could appear by video and that he was inclined to sentence him to an unconditional discharge, meaning he would not face jail time, fines, or probation. It is virtually unheard of for someone found guilty of felonies in Manhattan to see no punishment at all.

The ruling further denied Trump’s request to vacate the jury’s guilty verdict and dismiss the underlying indictment that argued the case should be thrown out in light of his election victory and the Supreme Court decision on presidential immunity. Merchan found Trump wasn’t protected by presidential immunity as president-elect.

The Supreme Court’s conservative majority, including three Trump-appointed justices, handed down the immunity decision in July, a month after Trump was found guilty. It determined that presidents are mostly shielded from criminal liability for acts they carry out during their official duties. In her dissent, Sotomayor said it meant that “In every use of official power, the President is now a king above the law.”

In December, Merchan found that evidence at trial, including testimony by Trump’s former White House communications director, Hope Hicks, about her private conversations with Trump and threatening tweets Trump directed at his ex-fixer Michael Cohen on his presidential Twitter account, was not barred by the immunity ruling as they related to Trump’s unofficial conduct.

Should the Supreme Court delay Trump’s sentencing any longer than Jan. 20, when he takes office, it’s unlikely his conviction will be finalized before his second term concludes. 

In a statement, Trump spokesman Steven Cheung said, “The American People elected President Trump with an overwhelming mandate that demands an immediate end to the political weaponization of our justice system and all of the remaining Witch Hunts.”

A spokeswoman for the Manhattan DA told the Daily News prosecutors would respond in court papers.

A jury on May 30 found Trump, 78, guilty of 34 felony counts of falsifying business records stemming from a scheme to hide embarrassing details about his past from voters in 2016 that violated New York election law.

The case centered on payments he made to Cohen during his first year in the White House, which reimbursed his longtime former fixer for paying off porn star Stormy Daniels to silence her claims of a sordid sexual encounter with Trump in 2006.

The Manhattan case was the only one of four brought against Trump after his first term that made it before a jury. As the charges are state-level, he cannot pardon himself. 

Associate Justice Ellen Gesmer shot down Trump’s emergency request to halt his sentencing from proceeding Friday at 9:30 a.m. — 10 days before he moves into the White House — after briefly hearing from his attorney Todd Blanche and the Manhattan district attorney’s chief of appeals, Steven Wu.

Blanche argued that the sentencing should be called off as Trump appeals a set of rulings by the trial court judge, Manhattan Supreme Court Justice Juan Merchan.

Last week, Merchan rejected Trump’s bid to get the case thrown out based partly on the position that the Supreme Court’s immunity ruling protected him as president-elect. The July decision by the nation’s high court found that a president is broadly shielded from criminal prosecution for acts they carry out in their official duties.

Gesmer appeared dubious about the position, asking Blanche if he could point to any case law showing that a president-in-waiting is afforded such protections.

“There has never been a case like this before, so no,” Blanche answered.

Blanche, who Trump has tapped to be second-in-command at the Department of Justice, argued that the sentencing would be an extraordinary imposition for Trump as he prepares to become president again. Gesmer interrupted him to say Merchan “would have been happy to hold this sentencing back in July.”

Trump’s legal team, which incessantly sought to delay the case from the moment of its inception, convinced Merchan to reschedule the sentencing three times after he was found guilty last spring.

In opposing Trump’s Tuesday request, Wu from the DA’s office said the claim that a president-elect has presidential immunity was inconsistent with the reality that there can only be one sitting president.

“The claim is so baseless that there is no support for an automatic stay here,” Wu said.

As to the claim that the sentencing would impair Trump’s ability to prepare for his presidency and be detrimental to the nation’s interests, Wu said Merchan had considered those factors. In his decision on Friday, Merchan said he wouldn’t impose any form of punishment and would allow Trump to appear remotely, Wu noted. Trump has indicated he’ll attend virtually if it goes ahead.

“If sentencing is to happen at all, now is the time for it to happen here,” Wu said.

In a filing earlier Tuesday coinciding with the emergency request, Trump asked the mid-level appeals court to reverse Merchan’s recent rulings that kept the guilty verdict intact. It came a day after Merchan refused to call off Trump’s sentencing, which he unexpectedly scheduled last week in one of the rulings Trump is appealing.

Trump’s filing to the 1st Department, Appellate Division appeals court said it sought “to redress the serious and continuing infringement on his Presidential immunity from criminal process that he holds as the 45th and soon-to-be 47th President of the United States of America.”

In his Friday ruling, Merchan decided that discarding the jury’s guilty verdicts against Trump would cause “immeasurable” harm to the nation’s confidence in the law and that Trump did not have immunity as the president-elect. In December, he found that immunity protections didn’t apply to evidence in the case.

The verdict delivered by 12 Manhattan residents on May 30 found Trump, 78, guilty of 34 felony counts of falsifying business records stemming from a scheme to hide embarrassing details about his past from the electorate in 2016.

The case centered on payments he made to Michael Cohen after his first presidential term began, which reimbursed his longtime former fixer for paying off porn star Stormy Daniels in the leadup to the election. Trial evidence showed Daniels was one of three hush money recipients.

The Manhattan criminal case was the only one of four brought against Trump after his first term that made it before a jury. It set him up to become the first convicted felon to serve as U.S. president. As the charges are state-level, he cannot pardon himself. He is expected to appeal his conviction if his sentencing goes ahead.

Trump may appeal Tuesday’s ruling to New York’s Court of Appeals, target a bid to halt the sentencing to a federal appeals court, and potentially ask the Supreme Court to intervene.

A spokeswoman for Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg, who brought the case, declined to comment. Blanche did not speak to reporters after the hearing.

The ruling by Manhattan federal court Judge Lewis Liman, which he read for more than 15 minutes from the bench, came after he heard several hours of testimony from Giuliani, 80, about his efforts to comply with requests from Ruby Freeman and Wandrea “Shaye” Moss, whom he was found liable for defaming in December 2023 and ordered to pay around $148 million.

In finding Giuliani had failed to comply with evidence obligations, the judge held the former lawyer for Donald Trump in contempt and reserved a decision on the punishment. Separately, he granted the relief Freeman and Moss requested to draw “adverse inferences” against him at his upcoming Jan. 16 trial, significantly limiting his avenues to defend his continued ownership of his $3.5 million Palm Beach, Fla. condo.

The bench trial will concern whether the property is Giuliani’s legal “homestead,” whose seizure would render him homeless, and his continued ownership of his Yankees World Series rings, which he’s claimed he gifted to his son, Andrew.

In his testimony that began on the stand in Manhattan Federal Court Friday and continued remotely Monday, Giuliani claimed he had done all in his power to comply with Moss and Freeman’s requests.

He said he “took it upon myself” to withhold some information he didn’t believe the women’s lawyers should be asking for, including a list of lawyers, doctors, and various providers he’s consulted since 2020 to establish how long Palm Beach has been his primary residence. Giuliani says it’s been his permanent residence, not just a vacation home, since Jan. 1, 2024.

Liman said Giuliani “blew past” a Dec. 20 deadline to provide the court details related to the condo. The judge indicated he would now assume Giuliani doesn’t have the information necessary to support his claims and would draw inferences about any gaps in what he did hand over.

“He has testified that he did not respond because he suspected the motives of [Moss and Freeman’s] counsel,” Liman said Monday. “If there was reason to believe [Moss and Freeman’s] counsel misused discovery or would misuse discovery, he could raise that with the court. It was not an excuse to take the law into his own hands.”

Liman noted that Giuliani had cited concerns over his security in refusing to provide certain information yet had provided the same details to financial institutions he’s dealt with.

“The only conclusion the court can draw and the one which it does draw is that defendant has been attempting to run the clock, thwarting [Moss and Freeman’s] efforts to get plainly relevant information by stalling until the date of trial,” the judge said. “The court concludes that these objections were simply pretextual and that his real reason for not providing the information was because its substance would be [harmful] to him in the homestead action.”

Liman said Giuliani’s testimony Monday that his violations were not willful and that he had tried to comply was “self serving” and that he put little weight in them.

“If he wanted to comply, he could have,” the judge said. “He simply chose not to do so.”

Lawyers for Freeman and Moss have an outstanding contempt motion against Giuliani that says he has willfully defied Liman’s orders to transfer millions in assets toward satisfying the $148 million judgment he was ordered to pay for falsely accusing them of ballot fraud in their Washington, D.C. defamation case.

An autographed Yankees Hall of Famer Joe DiMaggio jersey is among the items the women have said he’s refused to make available. Giuliani claimed it was missing and that he was personally investigating its whereabouts.

They said he’d turned over the 1980 Mercedes-Benz once owned by actress Lauren Bacall but not the signed title to go with it. Giuliani on Monday said he’d located the paperwork over the weekend.

Later this month, Giuliani is slated to appear in Washington for a separate contempt hearing. Freeman and Moss have asked the judge who presided over their defamation case to sanction him for continuing to repeat his lies that they committed fraud during the 2020 election. 

Giuliani is also under criminal indictment in Georgia and Arizona on charges related to his alleged efforts to subvert the results of the 2020 presidential election. He’s pleaded not guilty.

In a statement, Giuliani’s spokesman, Ted Goodman, said Willkie, Farr & Gallagher, the law firm representing Freeman and Moss, “might be happy to fight to take away Mayor Giuliani’s most cherished personal belongings including his signed baseball jersey of his childhood hero and his grandfather’s pocket watch, but they can never take away his extraordinary record of public service.”

In a brief written decision, state Supreme Court Justice Juan Merchan kept in place Trump’s sentencing set for Friday at 9:30 a.m. after the president-elect’s lawyers asked him to “immediately vacate” the proceeding as they appeal his denials of several efforts to get the case thrown out.

Merchan wrote that the legal positions Trump included in the request were “for the most part, a repetition of the arguments he has raised numerous times in the past.”

The shot-down request came amid a flurry of filings Trump’s lawyers brought in New York courts Monday as he was certified the winner of the 2024 election, four years to the day since the insurrection of the U.S. Capitol.

After asking Merchan to cancel the sentencing, they asked the First Department, Appellate Division appeals court to reverse his rulings from Friday and Dec. 16, which rejected Trump’s efforts to get the hush money indictment dismissed and the jury’s guilty verdict vacated. They may ask the appeals court to intervene in the sentencing following Merchan’s order late Monday.

Merchan, on Friday, flatly rejected Trump’s position that he was in any way protected as president-elect from criminal proceedings based on the Supreme Court’s July 1 ruling on presidential immunity and that the will of voters should override that of the jury who found him guilty. On Dec. 16, he also found that the Supreme Court immunity decision had no bearing on Trump’s criminal case in Manhattan.

In scheduling Trump for sentencing 10 days before his inauguration, Merchan said on Friday that it would bring closure to the case and allow Trump to exercise his options to appeal his conviction, which he cannot do before he’s sentenced. Merchan said he would impose a sentence of an unconditional discharge, which means Trump will not be subjected to jail time, probation, fines or any other form of punishment. Trump’s lawyers have indicated he will appear remotely if it goes ahead.

The scheduling came as a surprise, with prosecutors previously conceding that Trump may not face justice until 2029.

In their request to Merchan to cancel the sentencing, which was made public Monday, Trump’s lawyers, who have argued the case’s existence will impact his ability to govern, said their appeals should automatically halt the proceedings from going forward. In the alternative, they said Merchan should grant the pause.

“[The] court should not continue to act while its very power to act in the first place is under appellate consideration,” Trump lawyers Todd Blanche and Emil Bove wrote. 

“[T]here is no legal basis to rush ahead to sentencing rather than impose a stay, other than [the Manhattan district attorney’s] preference to get this done prior to President Trump’s inauguration … so that DA Bragg can tell voters in his upcoming election that he completed the case,” they later wrote.

Prosecutors opposed the request, citing “the strong public interest in prompt prosecution and the finality of criminal proceedings.” They said there was no risk the sentencing would interfere with the duties Trump will possess come Jan. 20 and that the current schedule was a result of his repeated delay tactics before and after his election victory, writing, “He should not now be heard to complain of harm from delays he caused.”

Trump spokesman Steven Cheung did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Merchan’s ruling late Monday. The Manhattan DA declined to comment.

Merchan’s denials on Friday set up Trump to take office as the first felon to serve as U.S. president. A jury on May 30 found him guilty of falsifying business records in 2017 relating to his reimbursement to Michael Cohen for paying off porn star Daniels in the leadup to the 2016 election.

Trial evidence showed that the payoff was one of at least three made to suppress unflattering information about his past from voters in 2016. The charges carry up to four years in prison.

Trump decried the case and officials involved in a string of Truth Social posts over the weekend, claiming, “I never falsified business records. It is a fake, made up charge by a corrupt judge who is just doing the work of the Biden/Harris Injustice Department, an attack on their political opponent, ME! He created a case where there was none.”

In an 18-page decision, state Supreme Court Justice Juan Merchan scheduled Trump’s sentencing for Jan. 10, at 9:30 a.m., at lower Manhattan’s 100 Centre St. in person or virtually. Merchan said he was inclined to impose a lenient and rarely heard of sentence of an unconditional discharge, meaning Trump would not face jail time, probation, or any other form of punishment. The judge said it appeared to be “the most viable solution to ensure finality” and allow Trump to pursue his appeal options.

Rejecting Trump’s argument that the historic conviction would impact his ability to govern and other legal positions, Merchan said throwing out the guilty verdicts would, in fact, cause “immeasurable damage” to the nation’s confidence in the law. Trump had argued, in part, that the decision by the voters who elected him should override that of the jury who found he broke the law.

“Here, 12 jurors unanimously found Defendant guilty of 34 counts of falsifying business records with the intent to defraud, which included an intent to commit or conceal a conspiracy to promote a presidential election by unlawful means. It was the premeditated and continuous deception by the leader of the free world that is the gravamen of this offense,” Merchan wrote.

“To vacate this verdict on the grounds that the charges are insufficiently serious given the position Defendant once held, and is about to assume again, would constitute a disproportionate result and cause immeasurable damage to the citizenry’s confidence in the Rule of Law.”

Trump may ask a New York appeals court to intervene and stop the proceeding from going forward 10 days before his presidential inauguration. However, if he lets it go forward, it would allow him to appeal his conviction instantly.

In a statement, Trump spokesman Steven Cheung blasted the decision.

“President Trump must be allowed to continue the Presidential Transition process and to execute the vital duties of the presidency, unobstructed by the remains of this or any remnants of the Witch Hunts. There should be no sentencing, and President Trump will continue fighting against these hoaxes until they are all dead,” Cheung wrote.

A spokeswoman for Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg, who brought the case, declined to comment.

The ruling, responding to a motion Trump brought after his election win, represents Merchan’s final say on Trump’s many efforts to get the case tossed. 

Last month, Merchan denied a motion Trump filed before the election to throw out the verdicts and dismiss the underlying indictment based on the U.S. Supreme Court ruling on presidential immunity, which came down after he was found guilty and granted the president broad immunity from criminal prosecution for “official acts.”

Trump had argued the ruling meant prosecutors were prohibited from showing evidence related to his time in office, including testimony from White House staffers and threatening posts on his presidential social media account directed at Michael Cohen, his former fixer. The judge agreed with the position of prosecutors that the evidence in question concerned “entirely unofficial conduct.”

On Friday, Merchan rejected arguments Trump renewed after the election that he was protected by the Supreme Court decision, writing that “immunity from criminal process for a sitting president does not extend to a President-elect.”

A jury found Trump guilty of 34 felony counts of falsification of business records on May 30 relating to his reimbursement to Cohen for paying off porn star Stormy Daniels in the leadup to the 2016 election, classifying him the first U.S. president to be found guilty of breaking the law. The charges carry up to four years in prison.

Prosecutors at trial argued that Cohen’s $130,000 payment to Daniels purchased her silence about a sordid sexual encounter she’s long alleged she had with Trump at a 2006 golf tournament when the porn actress and producer was 27 and he was 60. Trial evidence showed it was one made in a scheme to suppress unflattering information about his past from voters in 2016.

The criminal case was the only one of four brought against Trump after his first term that made it before a jury. After his victory, the Department of Justice moved to end the federal cases accusing him of plotting to overthrow President Biden’s win in 2020 and hoarding highly sensitive classified documents impacting national security after leaving office and poorly storing them at his country clubs. 

He’s not expected to face trial on state criminal charges in Georgia, which relate to his alleged election subversion efforts, anytime soon.