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 in a 5-4 decision on Thursday refused President-elect Trump’s request to halt his criminal sentencing, now just hours away, closing off Trump’s last remaining pathway to avoid receiving his punishment for his 34-count felony conviction in New York.