Donald Trump sentenced in hush money case to ‘unconditional discharge’ with no penalties
Today, January 10, 2025, president-elect Donald Trump appeared remotely and virtually in Judge Juan Manuel Merchan’s Manhattan courtroom from his Florida home, Mar a Lago, for sentencing in his hush money case. You may recall that on May 30, 2024, Trump walked out of Merchan’s Manhattan criminal courtroom a convicted felon after a jury of his peers found him guilty on all 34 felony counts of falsifying business records to conceal another crime in what has now become a historic trial that revealed the former president was making clandestine hush-money payments to porn star Stormy Daniels to cover up their sexual tryst – in an effort to keep that news from negatively impacting his 2016 run for the White House.
… Trump became the first former American president to be convicted of felony crimes Thursday as a New York jury found him guilty of all 34 charges in a scheme to illegally influence the 2016 election through a hush money payment to a porn actor who said the two had sex. ~ The Associated Press
MSN reports that Merchan handed down an “unconditional discharge,” meaning Trump remains a convicted felon but is not looking at any additional penalties like jail time, fines, probation, or even community service. The Associated Press wrote that Merchan justified his unconditional discharge ruling, writing in his opinion paper that his most important finding was that Trump’s conviction should not be thrown out simply because he was elected president. An excerpt from his statement in court today appears below.
A president-elect is not immune from prosecution
“The Constitution dictates that only a President, after taking the oath of office, has the authority of the Chief Executive, a President-elect does not. Accordingly, a President-elect is not permitted to avail himself of the protections afforded to the individual occupying that Office. … Binding precedent does not provide that an individual, upon becoming President, can retroactively dismiss or vacate prior criminal acts nor does it grant blanket Presidential-elect immunity.”
Trump made the political record books again as today’s historic sentencing marks the first time a U.S. president-elect has been sentenced for a criminal conviction while preparing to take office, according to NBC News. Despite the conviction, the judge’s decision still allows Trump to assume the presidency without the burden of any real penalties.
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Trump dramatically and vehemently expressed his intention to appeal the conviction, calling the sentencing a “despicable charade” and referring to it again, as with all of the criminal cases brought against him, as being politically motivated.
The president-elect took to his own social media channel, “Truth Social,” to rant against the sentencing and the case against him in general.
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For more on Trump’s historic sentencing today, see the video accompanying this article.
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(Cover photo, Jan 10, 2025, Donald Trump appears remotely from Mar a Lago for sentencing in the Stormy Daniels hush money case. Image credit: X)
Posted by Richard Webster, Ace News Today
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