Trump will be sentenced tonight in the "hush money" case, just 10 days before he takes office as President of the United States

By a vote of 5-4 on January 9, local time, the US Supreme Court rejected the motion for a preliminary injunction filed by President-elect Trump's lawyers, seeking to delay the sentencing in the hush-money case. The state's highest court, the New York Court of Appeals, had reached the same decision just hours before. This means that on January 10 at 9:30 a.m. local time – just ten days before he is to be inaugurated as US president – Trump will be formally sentenced for covering up payments made to silence a porn actress during the 2016 presidential campaign.

Trump has already signaled that he "respects the courts' decisions but, of course, will appeal." Although he is likely not to receive a custodial sentence, he said that this was a "disgrace" and a "terrible miscarriage of justice."

The presiding judge in the case, Juan Merchan of the New York State Supreme Court (the trial tribunal in the state of New York), has previously stated that he "does not favor sentencing Donald Trump to prison" and that he will likely issue an unconditional release. This means that while Trump will be sentenced for his crimes, he will not face imprisonment, fines, or probation.

In May 2024, a jury in New York City found Trump guilty of violating New York law by falsifying business records in an elaborate scheme to conceal $130,000 in hush money as he campaigned to become president in 2016. Merchan initially scheduled a July 11, 2024, sentencing hearing for Trump, which he postponed after a jury deadlocked on a separate bribery case and the president was convicted in another case related to his attempt to subvert the peaceful transfer of power after the 2020 election. The sentencing was first postponed until November 26, 2024, and then until an undetermined date in December.

Merchan had to consider an appeal filed by Trump's lawyers, who sought to postpone the hush-money sentencing hearing indefinitely or until his presidency ended. On December 16, 2024, Merchan determined that the guilty verdict in the case remained valid and that he would not vacate the guilty verdict entered on May 30. On January 3, 2025, he announced that he would deliver the sentence for the hush-money case on January 10. Trump's lawyers, citing presidential immunity from arrest and prosecution, appealed that decision to the New York State Supreme Court Appellate Division, First Department, the state's intermediate court of appeals.

On January 7, 2025, that court denied Trump's motion for a temporary stay of the sentencing proceedings, prompting Trump's attorneys to ask the New York Court of Appeals for a stay, as well as to take Trump's constitutional claims to the US Supreme Court and the state's highest court. The two highest courts have now denied Trump's request to delay the sentencing.