Washington DC - President-elect Donald Trump is going all the way to the Supreme Court Wednesday in efforts to delay his sentencing for covering up hush money payments to a porn star.

Trump made the eleventh-hour plea for a suspension of the criminal proceedings to the nation's highest court after a New York State appeals court dismissed his effort to have the Friday hearing delayed.

The Republican was convicted in May of falsifying business records to cover up a payment made to porn star Stormy Daniels on the eve of the 2016 election to stop her from revealing an alleged 2006 sexual encounter.

Trump is frantically seeking to avoid facing punishment before he is sworn in on January 20 for a second term as president.

Donald Trump Trump suffers latest blow in desperate efforts to push back sentencing in hush money case

His lawyers have brought several legal maneuvers in an effort to fend off the sentencing, which the judge in the case, Juan Merchan, has already indicated in a filing will not result in jail time.

"This Court should enter an immediate stay of further proceedings in the New York trial court to prevent grave injustice and harm to the institution of the Presidency and the operations of the federal government," Trump's lawyers wrote in their application to the Supreme Court.

"The commencement of President Trump's interlocutory appeal raising claims of Presidential immunity causes an automatic stay of proceedings in the trial court."

In their previous filing to the New York court, Trump's counsel had argued that sentencing should be postponed while the Republican appeals his conviction, but associate justice Ellen Gesmer rejected that on Tuesday.

Trump's lawyers also claimed that the immunity from prosecution granted to a president should be extended to a president-elect, but Gesmer also brushed those arguments aside.

His attorneys had further sought to have the case dismissed, based on the Supreme Court's landmark ruling last year that former presidents have sweeping immunity from prosecution for a range of official acts committed while in office.

Merchan said in a filing last week he was leaning towards giving Trump an unconditional discharge. That would mean not only avoiding jail, but escaping requirements of any kind.