Albany, Jan 10 (AP) New York's highest court on Thursday declined to block Donald Trump's sentencing in his hush money case, leaving the US Supreme Court as the president-elect's likely last option to prevent it from taking place as scheduled on Friday.

One judge of the New York Court of Appeals issued a brief order declining to grant a hearing to Trump's legal team.

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Trump turned to the Supreme Court on Wednesday after New York courts refused to postpone the sentencing by Manhattan Judge Juan M. Merchan.

Merchan presided over Trump's trial and conviction last May on 34 felony counts of falsifying business records in what prosecutors called an attempt to cover up a USD 130,000 hush money payment to porn actor Stormy Daniels. Trump has denied wrongdoing.

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In a filing to the nation's highest court Thursday evening, Trump's lawyers wrote that Trump and the nation will be “irreparably harmed by letting the sentencing go forward while there are no little to no harms” in delaying it. They claim Trump is immune from criminal proceedings as president-elect and say his trial was spoiled by improper evidence.

Trump's lawyers made similar arguments in their losing effort in New York's top court, saying that Merchan and the state's mid-level appellate court both “erroneously failed” to stop the sentencing. They argued that the Constitution requires an automatic pause as they appeal and that the sentencing would disrupt the Republican's presidential transition as he prepares to return to the White House on January 20.

Prosecutors pushed back, arguing that the Supreme Court lacks jurisdiction to stop the sentencing and that there's no reason it should take the “extraordinary step” of insinuating itself into a state-level case to halt it.

Trump has elected to appear by video, with the proceeding likely to take no more than an hour, they said, noting that sentencing has already been delayed twice at Trump's request.

“We brought a case. A jury of ordinary New Yorkers returned 34 guilty verdicts," Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg said at an unrelated news conference Thursday afternoon. "Our function right now primarily is to continue to give voice to that verdict and respect, as a principle -- bedrock principle of the administration of justice -- that the jury's voice must not be rubbed out.”

While Merchan has indicated he will not impose jail time, fines or probation, Trump's lawyers argued a felony conviction would still have intolerable side effects, including distracting him as he prepares to take office.

Trump's attorney D. John Sauer called the case politically motivated and said sentencing now would be a “grave injustice." Sauer is also Trump's pick to be solicitor general, who represents the government before the high court.

The emergency motion to the US Supreme Court was submitted to Justice Sonia Sotomayor, who hears emergency appeals from New York.

Trump's attorneys also argue that evidence used in the Manhattan trial violated last summer's Supreme Court ruling giving Trump broad immunity from prosecution over acts he took as president. At the least, they have said, the sentencing should be delayed while their appeals play out on the immunity issue.

Judges in New York have found that Trump's convictions related to personal matters rather than the official presidential acts at the core of the Supreme Court's ruling.

Prosecutors argue Trump's claims aren't strong enough to overturn his conviction and his appeal shouldn't freeze the case because it's about evidence rather than the core charges.

Any pause now would likely push the schedule out past Trump's inauguration, creating a yearslong or indefinite delay, prosecutors wrote. (AP)

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