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 US Supreme Court has rejected Trump's last-minute bid to halt his Friday sentencing in his hush money criminal case. The president-elect had urged the top court to consider whether he was entitled to an automatic stay of his sentencing.

The high court’s action clears the way for the president-elect to be sentenced for his criminal conviction in Manhattan on Friday.