The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday rejected an effort to halt former and potentially future President Donald Trump's sentencing in the hush money case, as well as lift the gag order imposed on him until after the November election. As CBS News reported, the effort, described as "a longshot bid" came from Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey.
U.S. Supreme Court declines to halt Trump's sentencing and gag order in New York hush money case until after election.
— NewsWire (@NewsWire_US) August 5, 2024
According to the CBS News report:
The high court denied Missouri's request to bring its case against New York, and dismissed a separate motion to pause Trump's sentencing in an unsigned order. There were no noted dissents. Justices Clarence and Samuel Alito said they would have granted the state's request to file a bill of complaint, but would not have granted the other relief Missouri sought.
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[Trump] has vowed to appeal the conviction, and his sentencing, while initially set for July 11, was delayed to Sept. 18. The New York judge overseeing the case, Justice Juan Merchan, lifted part of the gag order in June, but Trump is still restricted from talking about prosecutors, court staff and their families.
Merchan is also set to decide by Sept. 6 whether to set aside Trump's guilty verdict based on the Supreme Court's ruling that he is entitled to immunity from federal prosecution for official acts taken while in the White House. Trump's lawyers have argued that under the court's decision, prosecutors shouldn't have been allowed to offer evidence at trial of the former president's official acts. Manhattan prosecutors disagree with their assertions.
The report also quoted Bailey as taking issue with how New York prosecutors are looking to interfere with Trump's campaign:
In the request to halt Trump's sentence and temporarily lift the gag order, Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey, a Republican, claimed that New York prosecutors are attempting to interfere with Trump's campaign by using their "coercive power" in the form of the gag order and forthcoming sentence.
"Allowing New York's actions to stand during this election season undermines the rights of voters and electors and serves as a dangerous precedent that any one of thousands of elected prosecutors in other states may follow in the future," he wrote. "The public interest stands firmly with Missouri and the protection of the electoral process from this type of partisan meddling."
Bailey told the court that New York has interfered with Missouri's election process by impairing presidential electors' and voters' ability to see Trump on the campaign trail and hear him speak. Even if Trump could schedule events in September and October, after his scheduled sentencing, the gag order would restrict what he could say at those rallies, Bailey claimed.
"Whether Trump is being unfairly targeted for prosecution by his general-election opponent and allies of that opponent is of course highly relevant to Trump's pitch about which candidate voters should support in November," he said.
Bailey said that while a criminal sentence or gag order would generally not interfere with voters' choice to elect their preferred candidate when he has no chance of prevailing in the election, Trump is the Republican presidential nominee and ahead in some states. He also said that Trump was found guilty not of committing a violent crime, but rather "mere bookkeeping offenses."
"There is no urgent need to press forth with an immediate sentence and gag order," the Republican attorney general wrote. "There is an urgent need for the American people to hear from the major candidates without one state hampering one candidate's campaign."
Although Trump was initially supposed to be sentenced on July 11, that was delayed until September 18, following the July 1 decision from the Court in Trump v. United States. The former president has vowed to appeal, and legal experts largely believe that the May 30 conviction will almost certainly be overturned.
Of all the criminal cases against Trump, this looked to be the weakest and there have been plenty of issues with how the case was dealt with. Manhattan DA Alvin Bragg charged Trump with felonies when he could have brought the charges as misdemeanors, was using an untested legal theory, and after the statute of limitations had expired.
There have also been concerns with how a former top employee of the Biden Department of Justice, Matthew Colangelo, worked on the case.
Acting New York County Supreme Court Justice Juan Merchan has also been criticized for how he handled the case, from the jury instructions to his conflicts of interest.
Details about how Merchan's adult daughter, Loren Merchan, has financial ties to Vice President Kamala Harris, are still coming to light.
"The fight is not over," Bailey posted in part in reaction to news about the case.
New York is working to hijack our national election and jail President Trump. Missourians absolutely have an interest in ensuring that does not happen.
— Attorney General Andrew Bailey (@AGAndrewBailey) August 5, 2024
The fight is not over.