Judge sentences Trump to unconditional discharge in hush money case

Judge Juan Merchan on Friday sentenced Donald Trump to unconditional discharge in the hush money payments to a porn star despite the President-elect’s last-ditch efforts to avoid becoming the first felon in the White House.

This means that Trump will avoid jail time, fines or probation.

“This court has determined that the only lawful sentence that permits entry of a judgement of conviction without encroaching on the highest office of the land, is an unconditional discharge,” AFP quoted New York judge Merchan as saying while delivering the sentence during a court session.

Trump, who attended the court proceedings virtually, addressed the court about his conviction on business fraud charges.

“This has been a very terrible experience. I think it’s been a tremendous setback for New York, the New York court system. This is a case that Alvin Bragg did not want to bring … from what I read and what I hear, inappropriately handled before he got there,” The Guardian quoted Trump as saying.

“I called a legal fee a legal expense and for this, I got indicted. It’s incredible, actually.”

“They all said this case that should have never been brought, it’s an injustice," Trump said, referring to claims that legal scholars thought the Manhattan district attorney’s case was lacking.

Continuing his attack on the substance of the case, he said, “I get indicted for business records? Everybody should be so accurate. It’s been a political witch hunt … to damage my reputation so that I’d lose the election, obviously that didn’t work.”

He went on to recount how he had won the November election, noting that he had carried every swing state and the popular vote.

“I was under a gag order, I’m the first pesident in history (under) a gag order,” Trump said.

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“I assume that I’m still under a gag order but the fact is I’m totally innocent, I did nothing wrong,” he added.

The gag order has been a long-running issue in this case, and was imposed on Trump by Merchan after he began attacking various parties to the proceedings.

Trump also claimed that the justice department is involved in the New York case, which is not true.

Manhattan district attorney Alvin Bragg brought the charges against Trump.

The president-elect concluded by saying, “I was treated very, very unfairly” and told Merchan, “Thank you very much.”

After Trump was done speaking, Merchan generally spoke about the challenges and considerations of sentencing a defendant.

“The task is always difficult and deserving of careful consideration – whether the sentence be unconditional discharge or incarceration of 25 years to life,” The Guardian quoted Merchan as saying.

“One can argue that the trial was in many respects somewhat ordinary,” Merchan said of how proceedings unfolded, but “the same cannot be said about the circumstances around this sentencing.”

“To be sure, it is the legal protections afforded to the office of the president of the United States that are extraordinary – not the occupant of the office,” the judge added.

With inputs from agencies