The judge overseeing President Trump’s felony hush-money case has denied a motion by Trump’s attorneys to delay sentencing while the once and future president appeals the case to a higher court. 

“Defendant’s motion for a stay of these proceedings, including the sentencing hearing scheduled forJanuary 10, 2025, is hereby DENIED,” the judge, Juan Merchan, ruled on Monday evening. 

Trump’s legal team will likely appeal the ruling to a New York appeals court. The  judge has signaled he will not give Trump any prison time or probation, but the sentencing would nonetheless formally make Trump a convicted felon, a victory for the Manhattan district attorney, Alvin Bragg.

In his ruling Monday evening refusing to halt the sentencing, Judge Merchan reasoned that the arguments Trump’s defense raised on Monday morning were “a repetition of the arguments he has raised numerous times in the past.”

Trump’s attorneys, Todd Blanche and Emil Bove, had sent a letter on Monday morning arguing that the sentencing should be paused until an appeals court reviews the judge’s decision not to dismiss the case based on the Supreme Court’s landmark decision that presidents are immune from prosecution when exercising the “core powers” of their presidencies. 

The judge had ruled last week that this argument does not apply to Trump’s case, because Trump’s acts were not official acts. 

In a filing Monday morning, Trump’s attorneys argued that the court lacks “authority” to sentence Trump and must grant an “automatic stay of proceedings.”

“Due to the fact that further criminal proceedings are automatically stayed by operation of federal constitutional law, the Court will lack authority to proceed with sentencing, must therefore immediately vacate the sentencing hearing scheduled for January 10, 2025, and suspend all proceedings in the case until the conclusion of President Trump’s appeal on Presidential immunity,” the defense wrote.

They described the case as a “politically-motivated prosecution that was flawed from the very beginning, centered around the wrongful actions and false claims of a disgraced, disbarred serial liar former attorney.” They were referring to Trump’s sometime personal lawyer, Michael Cohen, the star witness for the prosecution.  

“There is no legal basis to rush ahead to sentencing rather than impose a stay, other than DANY’s preference to get this done prior to President Trump’s inauguration,” Trump’s defense attorneys wrote in their court filing, referring to the district attorney. 

Late last week, the judge had signaled that the president-elect would be released on what is known as an unconditional discharge, essentially a sentence of nothing — no jail, no probation, no fines, no obligation or conditions attached. The case would be done after sentencing. However, Trump would formally become the first president in U.S. history to assume the presidency as a convicted felon. 

In May of last year, a jury found Trump guilty of 34 felony charges of falsification of business records in an alleged scheme to interfere with the 2016 election. 

Mr. Bragg had alleged that in 2016, with Election Day nearing, Trump’s then-personal attorney, Michael Cohen, made a $130,000 hush-money payment to the adult film star Stormy Daniels, whose real name is Stephanie Clifford, to buy her silence about her claim that she had a single sexual encounter with Trump at a celebrity golf tournament at Lake Tahoe in 2006. Trump was accused of directing Cohen to wire the money to Ms. Clifford and then disguise Trump’s reimbursement to Cohen as a legal fee. Mr. Bragg translated this transaction into multiple felony counts. Trump denies all charges and says he never had sex with Ms. Clifford.

Trump was scheduled to be sentenced on July 11. Yet on July 1, the Supreme Court declared that presidents are immune from prosecution  when fulfilling the duties of their presidencies. Within hours of the landmark ruling, Trump’s attorneys asked Judge Merchan to dismiss the hush-money verdict and the indictment, arguing Mr. Bragg used evidence during the trial that stemmed from the time Trump served his first term as president.

The judge moved the sentencing first to September then to early November, and then to after the election so it would not influence voters.  Trump’s attorneys proposed several legal arguments to dismiss the case,  which the judge rejected last week. 

On Monday, Trump’s attorneys argued that they would appeal Judge Merchan’s decision to uphold the verdict to the Appellate Division First Judicial Department. Trump has sworn to take the case to the U.S. Supreme Court, if needed, to overturn the guilty verdict.