Trump Sentenced To An ‘Unconditional Discharge’ In Hush Money Trial

President-elect Donald Trump was sentenced to an unconditional discharge by Judge Juan Merchan on Friday, officially cementing his status as a felon without handing down any other punishment days before he is sworn into office for his second term.

The president-elect appeared virtually from his Florida Mar-a-Lago estate for the New York sentencing hearing and visibly shook his head as Merchan went over the conviction, The New York Times reported. During the hearing, prosecutor Joshua Steinglass argued that Trump has “disdain” for the rule of law but said that the prosecution agrees with the sentence of unconditional discharge.

Trump also spoke during the hearing, marking the first time he has addressed the court during the trial.

“This has been a very terrible experience. I think it’s been a tremendous setback” for New York, he said, according to the Times. The president-elect pointed to his election victory, arguing that the American people followed the hush money trial and still elected him president.

Trump concluded, “I was treated very, very unfairly, and I thank you very much.”

Trump’s attorney Todd Blanche, who was nominated by the president-elect for deputy attorney general, blasted the trial and conviction, saying the “majority of the American people” don’t believe the case has merits. Blanche said the only appropriate sentence — if there must be one — is an unconditional discharge.

Before imposing the sentence, Judge Merchan said the court had never seen such a “unique and remarkable set of circumstances” but emphasized that while Trump has been elected president twice, he is still a citizen and subject to the law. Merchan said that the office of the president shields “Donald Trump the ordinary citizen, Donald Trump the criminal defendant” from the punishment required by the guilty verdict.

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Trump put up a fight to delay the sentencing as he prepares to take the presidency in just 10 days, and the president-elect still has a path to appeal his conviction in the hush money case. In a 5-4 decision on Thursday, the Supreme Court rejected Trump’s request to pause the sentencing. The majority of the court did not rule on the merits of Trump’s argument but said that the question could be decided through an appeal. Chief Justice John Roberts and Justice Amy Coney Barrett sided with the court’s three liberal justices to reject Trump’s request.

Trump was found guilty on all charges in the hush money case last May. He was charged with 34 felony counts of falsifying business records to hide payments that were allegedly sent to porn actress Stormy Daniels in exchange for her silence on an alleged extramarital affair. Trump has denied the charges and said that the trial was politically motivated, hampering his 2024 presidential campaign.

Following his election victory over Vice President Kamala Harris in November, the prosecution’s attempt to put Trump behind bars hit a brick wall. Trump faced four years in prison after his conviction, but his election victory made imprisonment an impossibility.