Legal/Law/Criminal Justice and Reform

Trump Sentenced By Dem-Appointed Judge In Deep Blue Stronghold

Former President Donald Trump (Featured Image Credit: Screen Capture/CSPAN)

Judge Juan Merchan sentenced President-elect Donald Trump on Friday to an unconditional discharge.

A sentence of unconditional discharge is one “without imprisonment, fine or probation supervision,” according to New York law.

The Supreme Court declined to halt the sentencing in a 5-4 decision Thursday night. In an order, the majority noted the evidentiary violations Trump alleged were committed during the trial could be addressed on appeal.

Trump and his attorney, Todd Blanche, appeared at the hearing virtually from Florida.

“This has been a very terrible experience,” Trump said during the hearing. “I think it has been a tremendous setback for New York and the New York court system.”

Trump also noted that he won all seven swing states. After sentencing Trump, Merchan wished him “godspeed in your second term in office.”

Trump’s statement after sentencing  https://t.co/vnGePrYitc pic.twitter.com/iRCPciAF37

— Daily Caller (@DailyCaller) January 10, 2025

“After spending tens of millions of dollars, wasting over 6 years of obsessive work that should have been spent on protecting New Yorkers from violent, rampant crime that is destroying the City and State, coordinating with the Biden/Harris Department of Injustice in lawless Weaponization, and bringing completely baseless, illegal, and fake charges against your 45th and 47th President, ME, I was given an UNCONDITIONAL DISCHARGE,” Trump wrote on Truth social. “That result alone proves that, as all Legal Scholars and Experts have said, THERE IS NO CASE, THERE WAS NEVER A CASE, and this whole Scam fully deserves to be DISMISSED. The real Jury, the American People, have spoken, by Re-Electing me with an overwhelming MANDATE in one of the most consequential Elections in History.”

Merchan determined it would be better to sentence Trump before he takes office than after in a decision last week.

AUDIO: President-Elect Trump Sentenced in New York Hush Money Case https://t.co/fpNuC9HsSA

— CSPAN (@cspan) January 10, 2025

In May, a Manhattan jury found Trump guilty on all 34 counts for falsifying business records related to a nondisclosure agreement with porn star Stormy Daniels.

Trump was first indicted in March 2023. To elevate the charges to felonies and circumvent the expired statute of limitations, prosecutors alleged Trump falsified the records to conceal or commit another crime.

Prosecutors suggested the payment to Daniels was part of a broader “conspiracy” to influence the 2016 election using “unlawful” means. However, Merchan’s jury instructions did not require jurors to agree on which of the three potential “unlawful means” Trump used.

Trump’s sentencing was initially scheduled for July but was delayed following the Supreme Court’s ruling on presidential immunity. Sentencing was again delayed after Trump won the presidential election in November.