Appearing in court virtually from his Mar-a-Lago home Friday, President-elect Donald Trump was sentenced for his crimes in the New York “hush money” case and released with no restrictions, according to CBS News.
Justice Juan Merchan followed through on a promise made one week ago to give Trump a sentence of unconditional discharge, which includes neither jail time nor any other restriction that might impede Trump after his inauguration on Jan. 20.
Merchan said during sentencing Friday that he was granting that sentence because he believed it was the only legal option, just 10 days before Trump assumes the presidency.
Merchan told the court that “this has been a truly extraordinary case,” even though once the courtroom doors closed, the trial itself had been in his estimation no more special or unique than any other.
However, he told Trump, the same could not be said about the circumstances surrounding the president-elect’s sentencing “because of the office you once occupied and will soon occupy again.” Merchan said that it was the legal protections afforded to the office of the president that were extraordinary, “not the occupant of the office.”
Those legal protections were a factor that overrode all others, Merchan said, but they were not a mitigating factor. He said they did not reduce the seriousness of the crimes or erase the jury’s verdict.
Merchan said he determined that the only lawful sentence he could give, without encroaching on the highest post in the land, was an unconditional discharge.
While Trump’s trial and arraignment brought crowds and overnight lines, on Friday morning, the general public line was sparse and no onlookers in the park across the street were visible before dawn.
Trump was found guilty in May after a seven-week trial. A unanimous jury concluded he committed 34 felonies in authorizing a scheme in 2017 to falsify records, in order to cover up reimbursements for a “hush money” payment to adult film star Stormy Daniels.
Daniels testified during the trial, as did Trump’s former lawyer and “fixer” Michael Cohen, who received the falsified reimbursements for his wire to Daniels just before the 2016 presidential election. Cohen gave Daniels the $130,000 payment in exchange for her silence about an alleged sexual encounter with Trump years earlier.
Multiple witnesses testified that Trump was pleased voters did not learn of Daniels’ story before the 2016 election.
Merchan held Trump in contempt 10 times during the trial for violations of a gag order barring him from making public comments about witnesses, court staff and others. In issuing the 10th contempt citation, Merchan — who frequently acknowledged the unique circumstances of the trial and its famed, powerful defendant — foreshadowed Friday’s likely sentence.
Donald Trump’s criminal and civil cases
NEW YORK HUSH MONEY CASE
Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg charged Trump in March 2023 with illegally falsifying business records to cover up an alleged affair with a porn star. A jury convicted him of 34 felony counts in May 2024. The judge overseeing the case indicated he does not plan to send Trump to prison. But by granting an unconditional discharge, he would place a judgment of guilt on Trump’s permanent record.
Trump has denied wrongdoing and has vowed to appeal. The conviction could still be thrown out by an appeals court even after he is sentenced.
By granting an unconditional discharge, Justice Juan Merchan placed a judgment of guilt on Trump’s permanent record without any other legal penalty such as jail, a fine or probation.
GEORGIA ELECTION SUBVERSION CASE
Trump and 18 of his allies were charged in 2023 in what prosecutors alleged was a sprawling conspiracy to undo Trump’s defeat in the battleground state of Georgia in the 2020 election.
The prosecution stalled after an appeals court disqualified the district attorney in the case over her undisclosed affair with the lead prosecutor on the case, but it could potentially go forward under a new prosecutor.
FLORIDA CLASSIFIED DOCUMENTS CASE
Federal prosecutors overseen by U.S. Special Counsel Jack Smith charged Trump and two associates in June 2023 with mishandling classified documents after Trump left office.
A judge dismissed the case in 2024, and the U.S. Department of Justice dropped its appeal of that ruling pertaining to Trump after he won the 2024 election because department policy bars federal prosecutors from prosecuting sitting presidents.
On Tuesday, the judge, Aileen Cannon, temporarily blocked the release of Smith’s full report on the investigation. The Justice Department is appealing that decision.
WASHINGTON, D.C., ELECTION SUBVERSION CASE
Smith separately charged Trump in Washington, D.C., in August 2023 over his efforts to undo his 2020 election loss. A judge dismissed the case in November after Smith said it could not go forward while Trump was president.
NEW YORK CIVIL FRAUD CASE
In September 2023, a New York judge found Trump liable for fraud for inflating his net worth to dupe lenders and later ordered him to pay $454 million in penalties, an amount that has since grown with interest.
Trump has denied wrongdoing and is appealing.
E. JEAN CARROLL SEXUAL ABUSE, DEFAMATION CIVIL CASES
Trump was found liable for defaming and sexually abusing writer E. Jean Carroll in two separate lawsuits over an alleged incident in the 1990s where Carroll said Trump assaulted her in a Manhattan department store. Juries ordered Trump to pay Carroll a total of more than $88 million in damages.
Trump has denied assaulting or defaming Carroll and is appealing.
Based on CBS, Reuters reporting
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