Days away from his criminal sentencing in New York, President-elect Donald J. Trump is seeking a late-stage rescue from the U.S. Supreme Court, escalating his bid to shut down the case before he returns to the White House.
In an emergency application filed late Tuesday, Mr. Trump’s lawyers urged the justices to intervene and halt the sentencing, which is scheduled for Friday, 10 days before the presidential inauguration.
The filing came after a New York appeals court rejected the same request on Tuesday, casting doubt on the validity of his effort to stave off the sentencing.
The effort hinges on Mr. Trump’s argument that he is entitled to full immunity from prosecution, and even sentencing, now that he is the president-elect. His lawyers have based that claim on a polarizing Supreme Court ruling from last year that granted former presidents broad immunity for their official acts.
“This court should enter an immediate stay of further proceedings in the New York trial court,” the application said, “to prevent grave injustice and harm to the institution of the presidency and the operations of the federal government.”
The Supreme Court directed prosecutors to respond to Mr. Trump’s application by Thursday morning, an indication that the justices may act before the scheduled sentencing on Friday. A spokeswoman for the Manhattan district attorney’s office, which prosecuted Mr. Trump, declined to comment, saying only that the office would respond in court papers.
The filing capped a whirlwind stretch of legal wrangling for the former and future president, who is scrambling to avoid the embarrassing spectacle of a public sentencing.
Although Mr. Trump is expected to receive nothing more than a slap on the wrist — the trial judge overseeing the case has signaled that he would spare Mr. Trump jail time — the sentencing carries symbolic importance. It would formalize Mr. Trump’s status as a felon, making him the first president to hold that dubious designation.
Mr. Trump’s lawyers argued in the Supreme Court filing that being officially deemed a felon might complicate Mr. Trump’s presidential duties.
“In fact, the prospect of imposing sentence on President Trump just before he assumes office as the 47th president raises the specter of other possible restrictions on liberty, such as travel, reporting requirements, registration, probationary requirements, and others — all of which would be constitutionally intolerable under the doctrine of presidential immunity,” Mr. Trump’s lawyers wrote.
“Indeed, every adjudication of a felony conviction results in significant collateral consequences for the defendant, regardless of whether a term of imprisonment is imposed.”
The filing noted that Mr. Trump had also asked New York’s highest court, its Court of Appeals, for an emergency stay, acknowledging that litigants must ordinarily seek relief from lower courts before turning to the Supreme Court.
“Because it is highly questionable whether the New York Court of Appeals will act in the next 48 hours, filing applications in both courts appears to be the only viable option,” it said.
If the Supreme Court grants a stay of Mr. Trump’s sentencing, it might effectively scuttle the proceeding for good. The window to sentence Mr. Trump is rapidly closing — once he returns to the White House, Mr. Trump cannot face criminal prosecution — and he would be 82 after his second term concludes. It is unclear whether the judge overseeing the case, Justice Juan M. Merchan, would still seek to impose Mr. Trump’s sentence four years later.
For now, Mr. Trump’s odds of success at the Supreme Court are unclear. It takes five justices to grant a stay.
While some legal experts doubted the merits of his petition, the justices have come to his rescue before. The Supreme Court’s immunity ruling last year effectively thwarted a federal criminal case against Mr. Trump for his effort to subvert the 2020 election results.
And even though other courts have grown hostile to Mr. Trump’s arguments in the New York case, he might find a friendlier reception at the Supreme Court, where the 6-to-3 conservative majority includes three justices he appointed during his first term.
This is a developing story and will be updated.
Maggie Haberman contributed reporting.
