Manhattan prosecutors say President-elect Donald Trump does not plan to attend his sentencing in person, taking the judge up on an option offered last week, but not granted to Trump during his trial for crimes stemming from a “hush money” payment in 2016.
Trump is scheduled to be sentenced Friday in New York for 34 felony counts of falsification of business records in the first degree, though his lawyers have vowed to pursue a fast-moving multi-pronged effort to postpone the proceedings. The hearing was scheduled on Jan. 3, in an order in which New York Justice Juan Merchan offered Trump — who is in the midst of a presidential transition — the choice of appearing in person or virtually.
Trump has not publicly said what his decision would be, but prosecutors said twice in a filing Monday that he would make a virtual appearance in which he attends via a video feed.
The prosecutors’ filing, in response to one from Trump’s lawyers demanding sentencing be delayed, referred to the “defendant’s decision to appear for sentencing virtually instead of in person.”
They later wrote that the “defendant has elected to appear virtually rather than in person.”
A spokesperson for Trump did not immediately reply to a request for comment.
Trump has appeared virtually for a hearing in the case once before, during a May 2023 pretrial proceeding in which he joined via video from his Mar-a-Lago home.
The accommodation is extraordinarily rare in New York criminal courts, and it’s typically used for those who are hospitalized.
Merchan, in offering the choice to Trump, acknowledged the unusual circumstances of this scheduled hearing.
If Trump is sentenced Friday, it’ll be as he prepares to take office in the White House just 10 days later.
