By Editor
President-elect Donald Trump yesterday became the first-ever former or sitting United States president to be formally convicted of a felony as he was sentenced in his hush money criminal case—but the president-elect was not given any penalties for his crimes.
Judge Juan Merchan gave Trump an “unconditional discharge”—meaning his conviction stands, but he won’t face any penalties—after Trump was found guilty in May on 34 felony counts of falsifying business records, letting the president-elect walk free without any punishments.
Forbes reported that the sentence fell far short of the maximum penalties that Trump could have faced, as each of his 34 counts was punishable by up to four years in prison and/or a maximum $5,000 fine—meaning the harshest sentence could have seen Trump imprisoned for the rest of his life, though that was always unlikely to happen.
Trump attended the sentencing virtually and continued to deny any wrongdoing in a statement he read during the proceeding, saying the prosecution against him has been a “very terrible experience” and a “setback” for New York’s judicial system and claiming he’s “totally innocent” and “did nothing wrong.”
Merchan said last week he was inclined to impose the unconditional discharge sentence given Trump’s impending presidency—which prosecutors said they would not oppose—and all but ruled out giving the president-elect prison time, noting it would not be “practicable” with Trump’s upcoming inauguration.
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The judge explained his decision for the lenient sentence yesterday, saying an unconditional discharge is the only “lawful sentence” that would not “(encroach) upon the highest office in the land,” though he made clear his decision is because of Trump’s position and not him personally, specifying the protections shielding Trump from legal liability are afforded to “the office of the President of the United States” and “not the occupant of that office.”
With his sentencing, Trump can now be formally classified as a “convicted felon,” as the Justice Department notes being sentenced is necessary for a conviction.
“The protections afforded the office of the president … do not reduce the seriousness of the crime or justify its commission in any way,” Merchan said at Friday’s sentencing, though he noted the protections of Trump’s office are a “legal mandate” that the court “must respect and follow.”
However, despite the extraordinary breadth of those protections, one power they do not provide is the power to erase a jury verdict.”
The judge went on to suggest that Trump would likely have faced a harsher punishment had he not been elected, saying, “Donald Trump, the ordinary citizen, Donald Trump, the criminal defendant, would not be entitled to such considerable protections.”
Trump responded to his sentencing on Truth Social yesterday, railing against the charges against him and claiming the unconditional discharge “proves … THERE IS NO CASE, THERE WAS NEVER A CASE, and this whole Scam fully deserves to be DISMISSED”—even as Merchan made clear the lenient sentence was based on Trump’s impending presidency and not on his actual conduct or anything about the case. “Today’s event was a despicable charade, and now that it is over, we will appeal this Hoax, which has no merit, and restore the trust of Americans in our once great System of Justice,” Trump wrote
