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President-elect to appear virtually in Manhattan Criminal Court on Friday but has already vowed to file a further appeal against a prosecution he has branded an act of ‘lawfare’ by his political enemies
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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.
If you’re just joining us this morning, here’s Alex Woodward’s latest dispatch from the courtroom in Lower Manhattan to get you up to speed:
A brief refresher on why we’re here: On May 30, a jury of 12 New Yorkers unanimously voted to convict Trump on 34 felony charges of falsifying business records in connection with a scheme to unlawfully influence the 2016 presidential election.
Trump falsified accounting records to cover up his reimbursement payments to then-attorney Michael Cohen, who paid Stormy Daniels “hush money” to stop her from going public with her story about having sex with Trump in 2006.
Trump was initially due to be sentenced in July, but after a series of appeals and arguments surrounding the Supreme Court’s “immunity” ruling that month, the sentencing was delayed. It was delayed again after his election victory thrust his criminal cases into unprecedented territory.
This month, Merchan said the best way to wrap up the case and preserve the jury’s verdict before his inauguration, when things get even more complicated, is to issue a sentence without any penalty of jail, fines, or probation.
A federal judge has thrown out rule changes designed to protect LGBT+ students from discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity.
The rules proposed by President Biden’s administration expanded the scope of Title IX rules that block sex-based discrimination in schools that receive federal funding.
Biden’s rule changes sought to clarify that long-standing protections against sex-based discrimination also include harassment and abuse around sexual orientation and gender identity.
The changes were at the center of several legal challenges playing out in roughly half the country.
Thursday’s ruling applies nationwide.
In his summary, Kentucky District Judge Danny Reeves called the rules “arbitrary and capricious.”
Alex Woodward has this report.
Federal judge blocks Title IX changes intended to protect trans and nonbinary students from discrimination
Here’s a livestream of the scene outside Manhattan Criminal Court as we await Donald Trump’s historic sentencing.
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’s address will be one of two major speeches as he prepares to end a half-century in government
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.
Seth Meyers accused president-elect of spreading lies as death toll rises to seven
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.
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
The “rotten to the core” Khamenei regime is a “paper tiger” whose time is up, Donald Trump’s former secretary of state has told Iranians campaigning for democracy at a security conference in Paris.
Pompeo, a stalwart of Trump’s first term in the White House, made the comments while addressing a conference held by the National Council of Resistance of Iran in the French capital.
Here’s more from David Maddox.
Exclusive: Trump’s former secretary of state and foreign policy chief told an Iranian pro-democracy conference in Paris that the change of administration in Washington will mark an end to the current regime in Tehran
Here’s a comprehensive answer to the question on everybody’s lips from Alex Croft, recapping precisely what the president-elect was found guilty of and what punishment Judge Merchan could be about to hand down.
Trump, who was found guilty of committing 34 felonies, is first ever US president to face a criminal trial and sentencing
The Independent’s own Alex Woodward is braving sub-zero temperatures to bring us all the latest from inside the courtroom this morning and sends this initial dispatch, typed in between shivers:
Professional line holders and a handful of spectators arrived outside Manhattan Criminal Court before dawn for what is likely the final moment of Donald Trump’s only criminal proceedings, for now.
Hours earlier, the US Supreme Court declined to stop Trump’s sentencing hearing in his hush money case, after he argued that the closure of the trial – and the preservation of a jury’s unanimous guilty verdict – would infringe on his presidency.
The hearing comes nearly eight months after the verdict and has been scrambled several times with Trump’s ongoing claims of “immunity” from prosecution.
New York Justice Juan Merchan ultimately decided the only remaining path forward that keeps the verdict intact before Trump’s inauguration is to issue an “unconditional discharge” – a sentence without jail, probation or fines.
But after weeks of using the courthouse hallways to stump for his campaign and attack prosecutors and the judge, Trump will appear virtually today.
His defense attorneys – now Trump’s nominees to top positions at the Justice Department – are expected to appear.
Instances when all five living Amerian presidents come together are rare.
But for Jimmy Carter’s funeral on Thursday, they were all there.
President-elect Donald Trump was the first to arrive alongside former and future first lady Melania Trump.
Barack Obama, the Clintons, Bushes and Bidens were also in attendance.
Michelle Obama was the only living first lady who was absent, with reports claiming she was in Hawaii.
Outgoing Vice President Kamala Harris and Second Gentleman Doug Emhoff were the last to take their seats among a sea of lawmakers and members of previous administrations. G
iven the funeral’s proximity to the election — and the heated rhetoric over the past few years — some notably awkward moments were spotted by those watching the service.
Here’s more from Gustaf Kilander.
Presidents Barack Obama and Donald Trump, not known for being best buddies, engaged in some friendly chit-chat and shared a few laughs
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