Trump to be sentenced in hush money case days before return to White House

President-elect Donald Trump speaks during a meeting with Republican governors at Mar-a-Lago in Palm Beach, Florida Picture: Evan Vucci/AP

US President-elect Donald Trump faces sentencing on 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, the scenario set to unfold in an austere Manhattan courtroom was unimaginable only a few years ago.