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regular-article-logo Saturday, 11 January 2025

President-elect Donald Trump sentenced in New York criminal case, avoids jail time

“Never before has this court been presented with such a unique and remarkable set of circumstances,” the trial judge, Juan M. Merchan, said at Trump’s sentencing. “This has been truly an extraordinary case"

Ben Protess, Jonah E. Bromwich Published 11.01.25, 07:23 AM
Donald Trump

Donald Trump

After months of delay, President-elect Donald J. Trump’s New York criminal case culminated on Friday with the nation’s former and future President avoiding jail, but becoming a felon.

“Never before has this court been presented with such a unique and remarkable set of circumstances,” the trial judge, Juan M. Merchan, said at Trump’s sentencing. “This has been truly an extraordinary case.”

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He then imposed a so-called unconditional discharge of Trump’s sentence, a rare and lenient alternative to jail or probation. Explaining the leniency, Justice Merchan acknowledged Trump’s inauguration 10 days hence.

“Donald Trump the ordinary citizen, Donald Trump the criminal defendant” would not be entitled to the protections of the presidency, Justice Merchan said, explaining that only the office shielded the defendant from the verdict’s gravity.

“This court has determined that the only lawful sentence that permits entry of judgment of conviction without encroaching on the highest office of the land is an unconditional discharge,” Justice Merchan said. He then wished Trump “godspeed” and departed the bench.

Despite the lenience, the proceeding carried symbolic importance: It formalised Trump’s status as a felon, making him the first to carry that dubious designation into the presidency.

Trump appeared virtually, his scowl projected onto a screen in a chilly and bright Lower Manhattan courtroom filled with reporters, sketch artists and the Manhattan district attorney, Alvin L. Bragg. The President-elect was at his Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida.

“This has been a very terrible experience,” Trump said during the hearing, adding: “The fact is, I’m totally innocent.” Asserting the primacy of the election over the verdict, he said that the voters “got to see this firsthand”.

The sentencing resulted from Trump’s conviction on charges of falsifying records to cover up a sex scandal that threatened to derail his first campaign. Once the jury convicted Trump on all 34 felony counts in May, he fought tooth and nail to avoid the spectacle of a sentencing, but on Thursday the Supreme Court rejected his effort to block it.

The hearing began with a lead prosecutor, Joshua Steinglass, recapping the “overwhelming evidence” and saying that the prosecution had recommended that Trump receive the unconditional discharge. But Steinglass still blasted Trump, saying that “far from expressing any kind of remorse for his criminal conduct, the defendant has purposefully bred disdain for our institutions and the rule of law”.

New York Times News Service

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