New York court rejects Trump's request to delay sentencing

(Patria) - New York's highest court has rejected a request by US President-elect Donald Trump to halt the sentencing for a verdict in which he was found guilty of attempting to bribe a porn star in exchange for silence about a sexual affair.

Trump now pins his hopes on a freeze of the hush-money case involving porn actress Stormy Daniels at the US Supreme Court, to which his lawyers have submitted the same request for a delay in sentencing.

Prosecutors from the Manhattan court have also appealed to the Supreme Court, opposing Trump's request to delay the sentencing scheduled for today.

Trump has asked for the proceedings in this criminal case to be halted until the issue of presidential immunity is resolved.

His lawyers pointed to a Supreme Court ruling from last June that grants him broad immunity from criminal prosecution.

However, the Manhattan court reasoned that "the immunity arguments invoked by the defendant do not support an automatic delay" of the sentencing.

The sentencing is scheduled 10 days before Trump's presidential inauguration.

The former and future president was found guilty last May on 34 counts of falsifying business records and concealing a $130,000 payment to porn star Daniels in the final weeks of Trump's first campaign in 2016.

The payment was made to ensure that Daniels would not disclose that she had a sexual relationship with the married Trump years earlier. Trump says her story is false and that he did nothing wrong.

Trump is the first former US president to be criminally prosecuted and the first former president found guilty of a criminal offense.