Instant Reaction: Supreme Court Allows Trump Sentencing
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Bloomberg Audio Studios. Podcasts, radio, news. Let's get to legal analyst June Grosso, host of Bloomberg Law. June, I'm sure it's been busy for you in the last half hour trying to get up to speed. How was this decision divided? In what way did the court come down?

Well, that was the surprise of this decision, that it was a five to four decision. So the three most conservative justices, Thomas Alito Gorsuch and Justice Kavanaugh, who tends to be in the middle somewhere, would have granted this application. So it was...

the three liberal justices, the chief justice, and Justice Amy Coney Barrett, who denied it. So that's kind of surprising, because when you look at Trump's arguments, what he was asking for is to be treated differently from any criminal descendant without really providing any good explanations for why that should happen. He wanted them to basically explain

that controversial ruling giving presidents broad immunity from criminal prosecution for official acts. He wanted them to extend that to a president-elect, and they refused to do so. What they said was that...

The issues that he's raising can be raised on appeal in the New York case. And also, he had claimed that his responsibilities as president-elect during the transition would be burdened by his appearing at this sentencing. And they said that his responsibilities...

were not were relatively insubstantial in this sentencing. So they just basically said no way. So in terms of prosecutors pushing back, what was the argument essentially? Well, the prosecutor said that one of the things they said was that this was a jury verdict. And under our system, we have to really

uh, treasure jury verdicts. We have to respect jury verdicts and you can't just throw out a jury verdict. They also, you know, attacked his arguments that this was going to be some kind of burden on his responsibilities in the transition. And I think what was smart here is that Judge Mershon and a lot of people, when he first came out and said, I'm not

going to give him any sentence and said, well, what's the point of the sentencing then? Well, the point is that now Trump couldn't say that, oh, the judge may sentence me to time or the judge may sentence me to probation or who knows what, because the judge had said, I'm not going to sentence you to anything. I'm going to give you what's called an unconditional discharge. And basically what this is, is a symbolic sentencing so that Trump is now, yes,

convicted felon and that felony is on the books in new york and i think the problem for trump was always the stigma of being you know the first felon to be sworn in as president of the united states so i think that it's the stigma for him more than anything else because there's no other impact on him at all there won't be probation there won't be even a fine it'll just be the judge saying you know

This is the verdict and you're convicted and then it's over. So is this over June? Can the state appellate courts in New York kind of change the outcome here in any way?

Yeah, because he is still – and as the justices said, he can go forward with the appeal as a person normally would go forward. Normally you wait for the sentencing. You wait for – the conviction comes, then the sentencing, and then you can start the appellate process through the New York appellate courts. Well, Trump jumped all that. He wanted to go right ahead and –

and go to the supreme court i mean normally most people don't go to the supreme court and normally most people take it through the appellate process so that's what he's going to do now after the the uh...

the judge does the sentencing, then the appeal will take place. He'll have 30 days to file, to say that he's filing for appeal. And he can raise all these issues in the appeal. But remember, too, that some of these issues that were raised in New York, the appellate court and the Court of Appeals, which is New York's highest court, rejected. So, but, you know, he'll raise them again. And I'm sure this case is going to go on for some time. I mean, appeals can take years. I have to ask you about the report.

that Trump had a phone call with Samuel Alito, one of the justices on the court, in the case of whether or not this was in any way related. We don't know that. Alito did say he was giving a former law clerk a recommendation for a role in the new administration. How did that feel to you when you got that news?

Well, you know, Alito said that they did not talk about anything having to do with Trump or his cases. You know, there's nothing ethically wrong with that, I think, as long as he didn't discuss any cases before the court. But it does sort of sit well.

It just sits as something that it appears to be something that looks like an ethical violation, even though it's not. It appears to be something that perhaps is, you know, it's unsettling sort of to have a justice of the Supreme Court talking to the president hours before the president elects.

Excuse me. Hours before the president-elect's lawyers filed papers with the Supreme Court. It doesn't look good. But as far as, you know, whether anything went on, who knows? And Alito says it didn't. And that's the way it's going to stay. This is not going to go any further. I mean, we've seen...

ethical violations, allegations of ethical violations by the Supreme Court go up through the federal judiciary and they refuse to go forward. So this is certainly nothing's going to happen with this. That's for sure. So you mentioned he's now a convicted felon and sentencing will happen tomorrow morning at 930 a.m. Wall Street time. And then on the 20th, obviously, the president elect will take the oath of office. That's historic in and of itself because never has the United States ever

had a sitting president who has been a convicted felon. In the legal community, are they talking about retaliation in any way, do you think, as the result of this? You mean retaliation for the Manhattan district attorney? Trump has been talking about retaliation against the Manhattan district attorney since the case was filed. I mean, he has been talking about this throughout. He would do press conferences. He'd come out and extend

during the trial about how unfair the whole thing was, how it was a witch hunt and how the Manhattan district attorney had it in for him. It was all political. So that's there. But it's going to be hard to go after sitting –

district attorney because he's protected in certain respects for the things that he does in office. And he'll even be, I think even he'll get legal representation free from the state. So it's going to be more difficult than Trump makes it seem for the Justice Department to even put that case together. And certainly it's not a case that's going to go forward anywhere that...

It will probably be dismissed right away if it's brought at all. But, you know, that is what Trump has said all along that he you know, so he probably is going to look for retaliation. But I doubt he'll get it. What should we be looking out for in particular tomorrow morning around these sentencing, the language that the judge may use in addressing President-elect Trump?

I think we should put a stopwatch on how quick the sentencing is, because there's really not much to be said. There's not going to be any kind of, you know, appeal. I'm sure Trump is not going to. Maybe Trump will say something. Actually, I could be wrong. He may say something before he's sentenced. But.

But, you know, it's going to be very quick because we all know what the judge is going to say. And there's not going to be much of an argument from either side. The judge has already set this out. So I think it's going to be very quick. And at most, we'll see some kind of statement from Trump who's going to be appearing in

By video. The judge said he doesn't even have to come into the courtroom. That was another thing that the Supreme Court sort of I must have picked up on, that this is just a brief virtual hearing, they said. It's to impose a sentence of unconditional discharge after a brief virtual hearing. So I think what you have to take away from this whole thing is that Judge Juan Merchan knew what he was doing and set this up so that the case could be ended without any interference from the Supreme Court or the courts of appeal in New York.

We'll leave it there. June, thank you so much for making time to chat with us. Bloomberg legal analyst June Grosso, host of the Bloomberg Law Show, helping us understand a little bit more about the decision on the part of the U.S. Supreme Court to clear the way for President-elect Trump's sentencing in his hush money criminal case. We are told the sentencing is set for 930 a.m. tomorrow. Over four dissents, the justices rejected Trump's request to halt the

the New York sentencing as even though a state appeals court here in New York is considering Trump's claim of presidential immunity. And as June kind of laid out there, Juan Merchan, the New York judge overseeing this case, has said he will not give Trump jail time, any fine or probation. - There are two kinds of people in the world.

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