New York Judge Juan Merchan gave US President-elect Donald Trump an unconditional discharge during a sentencing hearing Friday, formally convicting the President-elect on 34 felony falsified business records counts without further penalties such as prison time or fines.
Reporter Adam Klasfeld relayed that Merchan deemed the unconditional discharge the “only lawful sentence” in this case due to Trump’s impending second term. The US Supreme Court relied on Merchan’s intent to issue the discharge in its decision not to delay sentencing in the case. Trump’s lawyers previously argued that the president-elect is entitled to the same immunity from prosecution as sitting presidents. However, the nation’s top court deemed that the burden of sentencing on Trump would be “relatively insubstantial in light of the trial court’s stated intent to impose a sentence of ‘unconditional discharge.'”
At the sentencing hearing, Trump again claimed that the charges against him were politically motivated. Shorly afterwards, the president-elect posted on Truth Social:
The Radical Democrats have lost another pathetic, unAmerican Witch Hunt. After spending tens of millions of dollars, wasting over 6 years of obsessive work that should have been spent on protecting New Yorkers from violent, rampant crime that is destroying the City and State, coordinating with the Biden/Harris Department of Injustice in lawless Weaponization, and bringing completely baseless, illegal, and fake charges against your 45th and 47th President, ME, I was given an UNCONDITIONAL DISCHARGE. That result alone proves that, as all Legal Scholars and Experts have said, THERE IS NO CASE, THERE WAS NEVER A CASE, and this whole Scam fully deserves to be DISMISSED.
Trump continued:
The real Jury, the American People, have spoken, by Re-Electing me with an overwhelming MANDATE in one of the most consequential Elections in History. As the American People have seen, this “case” had no crime, no damages, no proof, no facts, no Law, only a highly conflicted Judge, a star witness who is a disbarred, disgraced, serial perjurer, and criminal Election Interference. Today’s event was a despicable charade, and now that it is over, we will appeal this Hoax, which has no merit, and restore the trust of Americans in our once great System of Justice. MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!
Under New York law, an unconditional discharge is a sentence that enters a judgment of conviction against a defendant without any other sanction. This means that while defendants would not face prison, fines, or probation, they would have a criminal record.
Trump was found guilty in May of 34 state counts of falsifying business records in the first degree. The charges related to a scheme to cover up hush money payments to adult film star Stormy Daniels to cover up an alleged affair.
This is a developing story.
