In a singular moment in U.S. history, President-elect Donald Trump faces sentencing Friday for his New York hush money conviction after the nation's highest court refused to intervene. Like so much else in the criminal case and the current American political landscape,

President-elect Donald Trump can be sentenced Friday in his New York hush money case, the Supreme Court said in a 5-4 ruling.

The 78-year-old president-elect will appear via a video feed at the 9:30 a.m. hearing in Manhattan Supreme Court, where Justice Juan Merchan says he’ll give him the most lenient possible

The court’s 5-4 order Thursday clears the way for Judge Juan M. Merchan to impose a sentence Friday on Trump, who was convicted in what prosecutors called an attempt to cover up a $130,000 hush money payment to porn actor Stormy Daniels.

New York’s Court of Appeals, the state’s highest court, also refused to stop Trump’s sentencing Thursday morning, as the president-elect went to the court after both Merchan and a New York appeals judge declined to pause it while Trump appeals two orders Merchan issued upholding the guilty verdict.

New York’s highest court on Thursday rejected President-elect Donald Trump’s bid to postpone his sentencing in the hush money case, leaving the US Supreme Court as his last chance to delay Friday’s scheduled hearing.

The Supreme Court refused to block President-elect Donald Trump’s criminal sentencing for covering up hush money paid to adult-film star Stormy Daniels, clearing the way for an unprecedented court proceeding in New York.

U.S. President-elect Donald Trump is scheduled to be sentenced on Friday for his criminal conviction stemming from hush money paid to a porn star, a case that for a time overshadowed his bid to retake the White House.