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Todd Blanche, attorney for former US President Donald Trump (left), and US President-elect Donald Trump are seen on the screen at Manhattan criminal court in New York, on January 10, 2025. — AFP
#Trump #sentenced #unconditional #discharge #hush #money #case
A judge handed Donald Trump an unconditional discharge on Friday for concealing payments to an adult star, despite last-ditch efforts by the US president-elect to avoid becoming the first offender in the White House.
The judge spared Trump jail or fines even though the 34 counts of falsifying business records on which he was convicted in May 2024 carried potential prison time.
Instead, New York Judge Joan Merchin granted the lightest criminal sanction available, an unconditional discharge — a relatively unusual move.
“Never before have such unique and remarkable circumstances been presented to this court,” Murchan said.
“The only legal sentence which allows entry into judgment without occupying the highest office in the land is the sentence of unconditional discharge.”
Trump virtually attended his sentencing, with the judge, lawyers and media packed into a Manhattan courtroom that was the backdrop for the trial’s high drama, legal wrangling and personal attacks from divided Republicans.
“It’s been a very scary experience. I think it’s a tremendous blow to New York and the New York judicial system,” Trump said before the discharge was approved.
“This was done to damage my reputation, so I will lose the election.”
The former president appeared on screens in the courtroom with two large American flags behind him, wearing a red tie with white stripes and watching impatiently as the brief proceedings unfolded.
Before the sentencing, prosecutor Joshua Steinglass said Trump had been convicted of “premeditated and persistent fraud.”
He said that the verdict in this case was unanimous and decisive and should be respected.
The trial saw Trump forced to take the stand as a series of witnesses testified that he sexually assaulted adult star Stormy Daniels in an attempt to prevent her from appearing before the 2016 presidential election. had concealed the illegal payments, in which they ultimately won.
Trump suspended criminal proceedings after a New York state appeals court rejected his bid to delay the hearing. What was the demand?
But the Supreme Court ruled that the sentence can go ahead.
Prosecutors opposed an attempt to block the conviction, 10 days before Trump is sworn in for a second term, arguing that it was wrong for the Supreme Court to hear the case when the mogul has an appeal in New York. There were still ways.
First presidential sentence
An unconditional discharge is a move without bond or sanctions that nonetheless upholds the jury’s guilty verdict — and Trump’s notoriety as the first former president to be convicted of a crime.
Trump, 78, faced a possible four years in prison.
“He’s sticking his middle finger at the judge, the jury, the justice system and laughing,” Peace University law professor and former prosecutor Bennett Gershman said before the sentencing.
Outside the courthouse, Trump supporters held up a large banner emblazoned with their idol’s name that was blown away by strong winds. There was also a small vigil of anti-Trump protesters behind a billboard that read “Trump is guilty.”
Trump’s lawyer had argued that the sentence should have been stayed while the Republican appealed his sentence, but New York State Associate Justice Alan Gesmer rejected that on Tuesday.
Trump has repeatedly called the prosecution a “witch hunt” that Steinglass said was “designed to have a chilling effect.”
“This defendant has caused permanent damage to the public’s perception of the criminal justice system,” the career prosecutor said.
Trump lawyer Todd Blanch said he “disagrees very much with what (prosecutors) have just said.”
Trump was certified as the winner of the 2024 presidential election on Monday, four years after his supporters rioted in the US Capitol as he tried to reverse his 2020 defeat.
