Today, January 20, 2025, marks a pivotal moment in American history as Donald Trump is set to be inaugurated as the 47th President of the United States. However, the days leading up to this event have been anything but ordinary, especially in the legal arena.
Just last week, on January 9, 2025, the Supreme Court made a crucial decision regarding Trump's criminal sentencing in New York. Trump had been convicted on 34 counts of falsifying business records to hide reimbursements made to adult film star Stormy Daniels. Despite his plea to halt the sentencing proceeding, the Supreme Court rejected his request in a brief unsigned order.
The trial judge in New York, Juan Merchan, had indicated that he did not intend to sentence Trump to jail time and allowed Trump to appear by video at the sentencing hearing. However, Trump argued that as the president-elect, he was entitled to immunity from criminal proceedings. He also claimed that prosecutors improperly relied on evidence of his official acts, such as his posts on the social-media platform X, then known as Twitter, to obtain his convictions.
Four of the court's conservative justices – Clarence Thomas, Samuel Alito, Neil Gorsuch, and Brett Kavanaugh – indicated that they would have granted Trump's request. However, Chief Justice John Roberts and Justice Amy Coney Barrett joined the court's three liberal justices in voting to allow the sentencing to proceed.
The New York prosecutors urged the justices to allow Trump's sentencing to proceed as scheduled, stating that there was no need for the justices to take "the extraordinary step of intervening" now. They called Trump's suggestion that he should not be sentenced because he is the president-elect "baseless" and added that the evidence of Trump's guilt was "overwhelming."
In a related development, there was a controversy surrounding Justice Samuel Alito. Shortly before Trump's request to block his sentencing proceeding was filed, Trump spoke with Alito about one of Alito's former law clerks, William Levi, who is seeking a job in the new administration. Alito maintained that he had not discussed Trump's request or any other Supreme Court cases with Trump. However, Rep. Jamie Raskin, a Democrat from Maryland and the ranking member of the House Judiciary Committee, called on Alito to recuse himself, citing the need for impartial justice under the Constitution.
As Trump prepares to take office, these legal battles underscore the complex and contentious nature of his presidency. Despite these challenges, Trump's inauguration is set to proceed as planned, marking a new chapter in American politics.
This content was created in partnership and with the help of Artificial Intelligence AI
