From left to right, Judge Juan Merchan, President-elect Donald Trump and Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg. (Getty Images, AP Images)
FOX NEWS | Published January 11, 2025
Judge Juan Merchan wished President-elect Trump ‘Godspeed’ in his 2nd term in office
President-elect Donald Trump was sentenced to an unconditional discharge Friday after being found guilty on charges of falsifying business records stemming from Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s yearslong investigation.
The president-elect attended his sentencing virtually after fighting to block the process all the way up to the United States Supreme Court this week. Trump sat beside his defense attorney Todd Blanche.
Judge Juan Merchan did not sentence the president-elect to prison, and instead sentenced him to an unconditional discharge, meaning there is no punishment imposed: no jail time, fines or probation. The sentence also preserves Trump’s ability to appeal the conviction.
“After careful analysis, this court determined only lawful sentence that permits entry of judgment of conviction is an unconditional discharge,” Merchan said Friday. “At this time, I impose that sentence to cover all 34 counts.”
President-elect Donald Trump, right, in court virtually on Jan. 10, 2025. (Fox News)
Merchan added, “Sir, I wish you Godspeed as you assume your second term in office.”
Before Judge Merchan announced the sentence, Trump called the case a “tremendous setback for the American court system.”
“This is a great embarrassment to the state of New York,” Trump said, adding that the people saw the trial firsthand, and voted “decisively” to elect him as president.
Trump said the Justice Department was “very involved” and stressed that a case like this against a former president, candidate and now president-elect has “never happened in our country before.”
“And I would just like to explain that I was treated very, very unfairly. And I thank you very much,” Trump said Friday.
Merchan set Jan. 10 for the sentencing, just 10 days before Trump is set to be sworn in as the 47th president of the United States.
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SOURCE: www.foxnews.com
RELATED: Donald Trump 1st US President To Be Sentenced As Felon, But Avoids Jail, Penalty
Donald Trump Hush Money Case Sentencing: This means that the President-elect has been found guilty of his charges, but will not face any jail time or penalty because he has been elected President of the United States and will take oath to the country’s highest office on January 20.
Donald Trump is the first US President to be sentenced a felon. He’ll now be back for a 2nd term
Published January 11, 2025
Washington DC: Donald Trump today became the first felon in the White House after a US court upheld his conviction in a hush money case. He has been sentenced to an ‘unconditional discharge’ for covering up unaccounted payments to porn star Stormy Daniels.
This means that the President-elect has been found guilty of his charges, but will not face any jail time or penalty because he has been elected President of the United States and will take oath to the country’s highest office on January 20 – a post that brings with itself an impunity of being above the law while in office and beyond.
And so, though the 34 counts of Donald Trump falsifying business records on which he was convicted in May 2024 carried potential jail time, the judge could do little about it, ending up having to spare the President-elect. Should he not have been the president, Donald Trump would have been jailed for a term of four years. Instead he will now return to the White House as President for another four.
Donald Trump did not even attend the session of court in person, choosing to do so virtually, knowing well that he would not be sent to jail.
Stormy Daniels had testified in vivid detail about her alleged encounter with Trump in a hotel in Navada.
“This court has determined that the only lawful sentence that permits entry of a judgement of conviction without encroaching on the highest office of the land, is an unconditional discharge,” said New York judge Juan Merchan delivering the sentence.
He judge went on to say that “Never before has this court been presented with such a unique and remarkable set of circumstances.” With the constitution protecting the highest office in the United States, there was no other option for the judge than to give an “unconditional discharge” to the former president. Any other judgement risked encroaching the Presidential immunity accorded to the country’s highest post.
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SOURCE: www.ndtv.com
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