Story Daniels case: the Supreme Court drops Trump

Once is not usual. By 5 votes to 4, the Supreme Court of the United States ruled against Donald Trump in one of the criminal cases against him. Rejecting an eleventh-hour request from the president, the highest US court refused to block sentencing scheduled for 9:30 a.m. Friday in the trial that left Trump guilty of 34 counts for falsification of commercial documents.

“The burden that the conviction will impose on the responsibilities of the president-elect is relatively insignificant,” the Supreme Court argued in a paragraph-long ruling, noting that the judge in the case, Juan Merchan, had already announced that he did not plan to impose any sanctions on Trump during a “brief virtual hearing” on Friday. The Court added that the president retained the right, like any criminal, to appeal his conviction.

It is obviously the label of criminal in due form that Trump was trying to escape by asking the Supreme Court to pronounce the sentence, however insignificant it may be, before his inauguration as the 47th president. Two conservative justices dropped it, John Roberts and Amy Coney Barrett, as did the court’s three progressive justices. They made the difference against conservatives Clarence Thomas, Samuel Alito, Neil Gorsuch and Brett Kavanaugh.

After a weeks-long trial, Trump was found guilty of falsifying business records to hide the payment of $140,000 to porn actress Stormy Daniels in exchange for her silence before the presidential election of 2016. This conviction had galvanized the Republicans around his candidacy.

(Photo Getty Images)