ASSOCIATED PRESS – President-elect Donald Trump was formally sentenced Friday in his hush money case, but the judge declined to impose any punishment. The outcome cements Trump’s conviction while freeing him to return to the White House unencumbered by the threat of a jail term or a fine.
Trump’s sentence of an unconditional discharge caps a norm-smashing case that saw the former and future president charged with 34 felonies, put on trial for almost two months and convicted on every count. Yet, the legal detour — and sordid details aired in court of a plot to bury affair allegations — didn’t hurt him with voters, who elected him to a second term.
Manhattan Judge Juan M. Merchan could have sentenced the 78-year-old Republican to up to four years in prison. Instead, he chose a sentence that sidestepped thorny constitutional issues by effectively ending the case but assured that Trump will become the first person convicted of a felony to assume the presidency.
Merchan noted that despite the extraordinary circumstances, the trial itself carried the hallmarks of every other proceeding in this courthouse. “It is the legal protections afforded to the office of the president of the United States that are extraordinary, not the occupant,” he said.
Merchan says a judge must consider the facts of the case as well as aggravating and mitigating circumstances. “Never before has this court been presented with such a unique and remarkable set of circumstances,” he said.
Trump attorney Emil Bove confirmed President-Elect Trump appeared via Teams. “He’s co-located with my partner, Todd Blanche,” he said. Trump is in Florida, Blanche confirmed.
Assistant District Attorney Joshua Steinglass spoke on behalf of the prosecution. He notes the conviction and reviews the sentencing options include up to four years in prison, but other remedies as well.
Steinglass says the prosecution recommends unconditional discharge based on circumstances including Trump’s impending return to the White House.
Steinglass says prosecutors are OK with the potential no-penalty sentence. He cites “all the circumstances of this case, its unique posture and the defendant’s status as president-elect.”
“The verdict in this case was unanimous and decisive and it must be respected,” he said.
As prosecutors began their remarks, Trump shook his head, eyes darting around the screen. The camera view is framed tightly on him and Blanche, offering courtroom spectators a much closer view of Trump’s expression than during the trial.
“As this court has noted, the defendant’s conduct constitutes a ‘direct attack on the rule of law itself,’” Steinglass said.
He also noted Trump’s threats to retaliate against people who have wronged him in his legal matters, which Steinglass said is intended to have a chilling effect. Steinglass said the author of the pre-sentence report, a probation officer who interviewed Trump, notes Trump sees himself as above the law.
Despite all that, Steinglass said an unconditional discharge is the “most practical sentence prior to his inauguration.”
Trump lawyer Todd Blanche spoke with Trump by his side. “I very, very much disagree with much of what the government just said about this case, about the legitimacy of what happened in this courtroom during this trial, and about President Trump’s conduct fighting this case,” Blanche said.
President-Elect Trump did make a statement in court. “This has been a very terrible experience. I think it has been a tremendous set back for New York and the New York court system,” he said. “It’s been a political witch hunt,” he said. “It was done to damage my reputation so that I would lose the election, and obviously, that didn’t work.”
Trump says: ‘I’m totally innocent. I did nothing wrong”. He argued that voters saw what happened in this courtroom and, like him, thought it was a disgrace and supported him overwhelmingly in the election.
