The defeat at the Supreme Court was a rare reversal for Trump’s strategy of seeking to delay his criminal cases with multiple appeals – which he used in his federal cases to buy time until he could use his executive authority to thwart them. Of course, for this to work he had to live up to his end of the bargain and win the election.

The Supreme Court on Thursday denied President-elect Donald Trump’s request to delay his sentencing in New York’s hush money case, ensuring the Friday hearing will proceed as scheduled.