'Better fasten our seatbelts': Legal expert explains 'key difference' in SCOTUS’ latest Trump decision

The Supreme Court of the United States stunned legal and political experts on Thursday in its 5-4 decision to deny President-elect Donald Trump's request to halt his sentencing in the New York hush money case, set to occur on Friday, January 10.

During an interview with MSNBC's Joy Reid, former FBI counsel Andrew Weissmann shared his thoughts on the ruling, explaining why it's a win — with a caveat.

"A couple of thoughts on the 5-4 decision, where the key difference here is that the chief justice switched," Weissmann began. "We had a presidential immunity decision that seemed to suggest that we could see a stay coming in place. But Amy Coney Barrett dissented on the key part relevant to the issue that was before the court, and Chief Justice Roberts also switched. Those were the two justices who joined the so-called liberal justices to make up five."

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He continued, "I think the main thrust in the take home here is that the court said that the rule of law is going to apply the same way to Donald Trump as it does for anyone else. That is a long time coming, Joy. I know I'm preaching to the choir here. But they are basically saying this is the normal course. You raise issues on appeal after sentencing, not before. That's what would happen to you, and to me, and to everyone else. And that's why you have the five justices saying that."

The former FBI counsel then explained the downside to the ruling.

"Now, the bad news is that it was a 5-4 decision," he said. "This should have been 9-0. So what we are going to be seeing in the next four years is an issue of whether this will continue being 5-4 — we are going to have this block of the four dissenters — and when we're going to see Justice Roberts and/or Justice Amy Coney Barrett switch back. I think that this kind of dynamic is one that I think we better sort of fasten our seatbelts for."

"But tonight," Weissmann concluded, "we are seeing the Supreme Court having done the right thing after they took so long to decide the presidential immunity decision, delayed the federal cases inordinately. But here, they are giving the green light for the president-elect of the United States of America to be sentenced tomorrow in state court for 34 felonies that he was convicted of by a jury of his peers."

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