The Supreme Court on Monday rejected a long-shot attempt by Missouri to block the former president’s sentencing donald trump in his hush money case in New York.
A Manhattan jury convicted Trump on all 34 criminal counts in the case in May, and a judge set sentencing for September 18. But last month, Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey — a Republican and Trump ally — filed suit unusual set of moves in the Supreme Court asking the judges to postpone the sentence until after the November elections and lift the gag order the judge imposed in the case.
Missouri’s offer was considered a lawsuit against New York. According to the Constitution, the Supreme Court has the power to judge disputes between states without these disputes going through lower courts.
Missouri alleged that the money-silence charge violated the rights of the state’s voters by preventing them from “fully engaging with and listening to a major party presidential candidate in the run-up to the November elections.” New York responded that Missouri’s candidacy consisted of “generalized and speculative complaints” and was legally defective.
In a one-page request, the justices denied Missouri’s request without explanation. Justices Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito indicated that they would have allowed Missouri to file a formal complaint with the high court, “but would not grant other relief,” the court’s order said.
Trump was convicted of 34 felony counts of falsifying business records to cover up hush money paid to a porn star in the closing days of the 2016 presidential race. He faces up to four years in prison, although some legal experts say a lesser sentence, such as fine or probation, is more likely.
Bailey argued that the Manhattan district attorney’s prosecution of Trump Alvin Bragg it was a political vendetta aimed at knocking Trump out of the 2024 presidential race.
“It is disappointing that the Supreme Court has refused to exercise its constitutional responsibility to resolve disputes between states,” Bailey said in a statement posted Monday on X.
Bailey is running in the Republican primary for state attorney general against challenger Will Scharf, a lawyer who worked for Trump. The primary elections are Tuesday.
A spokesperson for Bragg declined to comment.
Judge Juan Merchan, who presided over Trump’s trial, reduced the gag order in June, allowing Trump to criticize witnesses and jurors in the case. However, the judge refused Trump’s requests to lift the restrictions entirely and left the former president barred from making public comments to prosecutors and court staff. Last week, an appeals panel also refused Trump’s offer to end the order completely.
Four other states with hardline Republican attorneys general – Alaska, Florida, Iowa and Montana – supported Missouri’s request in the high court.
The Supreme Court’s order refusing Missouri’s legal Hail Mary was similar to one issued by the high court in December 2020 turning down an effort by Texas and other Republican-led states to challenge election procedures in Democratic-led states. This effort was also termed as a state-to-state lawsuit brought directly to the Supreme Court. As they did in the Missouri case, Thomas and Alito also said then that they would have allowed Texas to sue but would not have granted other relief.
In the 2020 decision, the justices provided more information about their reasoning than in the most recent decision. “Texas has not demonstrated a judicially cognizable interest in the manner in which another State conducts its elections,” the court said in its order, which was seen as the final straw in Trump and his allies’ legal campaign to challenge the President’s victory. Joe Biden. .
