President-elect Donald Trump was spared prison time when he was formally sentenced to an “unconditional discharge” in his hush money case in New York on Friday.
A Manhattan judge declined to sentence Trump to prison time or impose a fine on the incoming President.
Trump is the first incoming U.S. President to be sentenced in a criminal case. He will be the first sitting President with a felony conviction when he’s sworn in on January 20.
Trump made his court appearance on a computer monitor. One of his lawyers sat alone in the courtroom as the judge handed down his sentence.
The judge said an unconditional discharge was the “only lawful sentence, without encroaching upon the highest office in the land”.
Trump was convicted on 34 counts of falsifying business records in a NY courthouse in May 2024.
Prosecutors said Trump’s then-attorney Michael Cohen paid adult film star Stormy Daniels $130,000 prior to the 2016 presidential election.
On Thursday, the U.S. Supreme Court declined Trump’s request to delay his sentencing. The conservative Supreme Court decided 5-4 to let the sentencing move forward.
Trump said he thought the Supreme Court’s ruling was a “fair decision.” He plans to appeal the trial verdict and sentencing.
In a lengthy post on his Truth Social app on Friday, Trump wrote, “The Radical Democrats have lost another pathetic, un-American Witch Hunt.”
“Today’s event was a despicable charade, and now that it is over, we will appeal this Hoax,” Trump added.
Trump supporters accused President Joe Biden of using “lawfare” to throw Trump in prison before the elections.
But Biden was ousted from the race as the incumbent president in a coup by his own party in July 2024. Vice President Kamala Harris was handed the presidential nomination without having to compete in a primary.
Americans who voted for Democrats their entire lives called the decision to oust Biden “undemocratic.”
Against all odds, Trump won the November 5, 2024 presidential election in a “historic” landslide.
The NY hush money case was the only one of four criminal indictments that went to trial. Trump and 18 others were indicted in Georgia for attempting to overturn the 2020 elections.
Four defendants copped a plea for violating Georgia’s RICO statute.
But a Georgia Appeals Court recently disqualified Fulton County DA Fani Willis from the case.
Willis filed an appeal of her disqualification on Wednesday. She asked Georgia’s highest court to reverse the lower court’s ruling. She argued that the ruling “overreached the Court of Appeals’ authority.”
