The New York judge who presided over Donald Trump’s hush money case on Friday sentenced the president-elect to an “unconditional discharge,” meaning he is now a convicted felon in the eyes of New York state law but will face no further penalties.
“This has been a very terrible experience,” a dour Trump said, speaking remotely from his Florida home when allowed to address the judge.
“It was done to decrease my reputation so I would lose the election,” he said. “I am totally innocent. I did nothing wrong,” he maintained.
“This has been a truly extraordinary case.”
He cited the immunity and legal protections Trump will soon have as the reasons for sentencing him with an unconditional discharge, which he called “the only lawful sentence that permits entry of a judgment of conviction without encroaching upon the highest office in the land.”
“Donald Trump, the ordinary citizen, Donald Trump, the criminal defendant, would not be entitled to such considerable protections,” Merchan said.
Trump’s attorneys had repeatedly sought to stay the proceeding, which Merchan scheduled last week. Their appeals to Merchan, two state appeals courtsand even the country’s highest court over the past week were unsuccessful. Trump’s last hope, the U.S. Supreme Court,declined to block the proceeding in a 5-4 ruling late Thursday.
Prosecutor Joshua Steinglass said in court that Trump was convicted of 34 felony counts punishable by one to four years in prison, but recommended the judge hand down “a sentence of unconditional release” given the unique circumstances of the case.
“This defendant has caused enduring damage to the public perception of the criminal justice system,” he said.
Trump, in remarks to the media from his Mar-a-Lago club in Florida on Thursday after the Supreme Court ruling, alluded to the possibility of further appeals, such as an attempt to appeal the verdict itself.
“So I’ll do my little thing tomorrow. They can have fun with their political opponent,” he said.
The president-elect took to his social media platform Truth Social after the proceeding Friday to tout the light sentence.
Merchan had revealed in a decision last week ordering the sentencing to proceed that he would most likely give Trump an unconditional discharge given singular circumstances.
He also, however, blasted Trump for both the conduct that led to his conviction in May and his behavior during and after the trial.
It was the premeditated and continuous deception by the leader of the free world that is the gravamen of this offense.”
He also took Trump to task for his attacks on the judicial system.
“Defendant’s disdain for the Third Branch of government, whether state or federal, in New York or elsewhere, is a matter of public record. Indeed, Defendant has gone to great lengths to broadcast on social media and other forums his lack of respect for judges, juries, grand juries and the justice system as a whole,” Merchan wrote, saying he’d repeatedly found Trump in contempt for violating his partial gag order in the case “despite repeated admonitions.”
Yet Defendant continues to undermine its legitimacy, in posts to his millions of followers,” Merchan wrote. The gag order expired after the sentencing, per the terms of a Merchan order last June.
Blanche suggested at an appeals court hearing seeking to block the sentencing this week that he was skeptical Merchan would give Trump an unconditional discharge, despite what he wrote in his order.
