With Trump 10 days from inauguration, Judge Juan M. Merchan has indicated he plans a no-penalty sentence called an unconditional discharge and prosecutors aren’t opposing it. That would mean no jail time, no probation and no fines would be imposed, but nothing is final until Friday’s proceeding is done.

New York’s Court of Appeals, the state’s highest court, also refused to stop Trump’s sentencing Thursday morning, as the president-elect went to the court after both Merchan and a New York appeals judge declined to pause it while Trump appeals two orders Merchan issued upholding the guilty verdict.

The court’s 5-4 order Thursday clears the way for Judge Juan M. Merchan to impose a sentence Friday on Trump, who was convicted in what prosecutors called an attempt to cover up a $130,000 hush money payment to porn actor Stormy Daniels.