The New York judge presiding over President-elect Donald Trump’s hush money case on Friday set a 10-day sentence before his Jan. 20 inauguration and said he was not willing to impose prison sentences.
Judge Juan Merchán said Trump, the first former president convicted of a crime, can appear in person or virtually at his Jan. 10 sentencing.
In an 18-page decision, Merchan upheld Trump’s conviction by a New York jury, rejecting several motions by Trump’s lawyers seeking to have it dismissed.
The judge said that instead of imprisonment he was leaning toward unconditional release, meaning the real estate magnate would not be subject to any conditions.
However, the sentence would see Trump enter the White House as a convicted felon.
Trump, 78, was potentially facing up to four years in prison, but legal experts — even before he won the November presidential election — did not expect Merchan to send the former president to prison.
“It seems appropriate at this time to make known the Court’s inclination not to impose any sentence of imprisonment,” the judge said, noting that prosecutors also did not believe a prison sentence was a “viable recommendation.”
Trump, who is expected to file an appeal that could delay his sentencing, denounced the decision Friday night.
“This illegitimate political attack is nothing more than a rigged farce,” he wrote on his Truth Social platform.
Trump called Merchan a “radical partisan” and added that the order was “knowingly illegal, goes against our Constitution and, if allowed to stand, would be the end of the Presidency as we know it.”
Trump was convicted in New York in May on 34 counts of falsifying business records to cover up a money payment to porn star Stormy Daniels on the eve of the 2016 election to prevent her from disclosing an alleged 2006 sexual encounter.
Trump’s lawyers had sought to have the case dismissed on multiple grounds, including the Supreme Court’s landmark ruling last year that former U.S. presidents have broad immunity from prosecution for a range of official acts committed while in office.
Merchan rejected that argument, but noted that Trump will be immune from prosecution once he is sworn in as president.
“Finding no legal impediment to sentencing and recognizing that presidential immunity will likely be granted once the defendant is sworn in, it is incumbent on this Court to set this matter for sentencing before January 20, 2025,” the court said. judge.
‘witch hunt’
Trump spokesman Steven Cheung denounced Merchan’s decision to set a sentence for the former president, calling it a “direct violation of the Supreme Court’s immunity ruling and other long-standing jurisprudence.”
“This illegal case should never have been filed and the Constitution requires that it be dismissed immediately,” Cheung said in a statement.
“President Trump must be allowed to continue the presidential transition process and execute the vital duties of the presidency, unhindered by the remnants of this or any remnants of the witch hunt,” he said.
“There should be no sentencing and President Trump will continue to fight these hoaxes until they are all dead,” Cheung added.
Trump also faced two federal cases brought by special counsel Jack Smith, but both were dropped under a long-standing Justice Department policy of not prosecuting a sitting president.
In those cases, Trump was accused of conspiring to overturn the results of the 2020 election that he lost to Joe Biden and of removing large amounts of top-secret documents after leaving the White House.
Trump also faces racketeering charges in Georgia for his alleged efforts to subvert the 2020 election results in the southern state, but that case will likely remain frozen while he is in the White House.
