President-elect Donald Trump received an unconditional discharge for his criminal conviction in New York on Friday, meaning he will not face fines, prison, or any other penalties.
The former and future president appeared virtually in a Manhattan courtroom on Friday for his sentencing on 34 felony counts of falsifying business records to conceal a payment to an adult film star.
During the brief hearing, New York state Judge Juan Merchan said the only lawful sentence that does not encroach on the office of the president is that of an unconditional discharge on all counts.
The 2024 election results loomed over the hearing, with Trump just 10 days away from being sworn into the oval office for a second term. Trump had argued the sentencing would interfere with his ability to govern, and said he plans to appeal.
This was the first time that a former, future or sitting U.S. president has been tried on criminal charges. And this was the only one of Trump’s criminal cases to see trial.
“Trial was a paradox,” Merchan said, noting the high level of security and media attention. But “once doors closed, it was no more unique than the other 32 trials taking place in this courthouse at the same exact time.”
But while the trial could be seen as an ordinary procedure, Merchan said, the same cannot be said about the circumstances surrounding the sentencing because Trump is about to occupy the office of the president.
“Sir, I wish you Godspeed as you assume your second term in office,” Merchan said before leaving the bench.
Prosecutors asked for minimal sentence
Trump on Thursday exhausted his last legal maneuver to stop the sentencing, after a narrow majority of Supreme Court justices declined to intervene.
Prosecutors in the office of Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg recommended that Trump get the minimal sentence of unconditional discharge, as a way to ensure the trial’s finality and respect the jury’s verdict, while not interfering with Trump’s ability to govern.
An “unconditional discharge” means the president-elect must do nothing, but the conviction will remain on his record.
Right before being formally sentenced, Merchan offered Trump the opportunity to speak. During his remarks, Trump doubled down on his defense: that the business records were legal expenses, not hush-money payments, and recorded by accountants, not by him.
“I would just like to explain that I was treated very, very unfairly,” Trump said, after reiterating the false claim that the trial is politically motivated, and arguing that he is innocent despite the jury conviction.
Prosecutors pushed back against Trump’s attempts to characterize the trial as politically motivated.
“The defendant’s conduct constitutes a direct attack on the rule of law itself,” said Josh Steinglass, one of the prosecutors. “This defendant has caused enduring damage to the public perception of the criminal justice system and has placed officers and court in harm’s way.”
Since Trump’s conviction in May, Merchan has postponed the sentencing several times, including to avoid any perception of political bias ahead of Election Day, and then to allow Trump to argue he had immunity in the case, based on a Supreme Court ruling on presidential immunity.
Merchan ultimately denied the immunity claims, and the dismissal, paving the way for the hearing on Friday.
Anna Cominsky, director of the criminal defense clinic at New York Law School, said the sentence does give the public a measure of closure about the case — even as the planned appeals could stretch on for years.
“It certainly makes sense that there be some finality to this case because as a nation, we should want to move on, in particular as he assumes the role of president, and be able to look forward to the next four years without this sentence pending,” Cominsky said. “There has to be an end.”
Fundraising haul
In May, Trump became the first former or sitting U.S. president to be tried on criminal charges and be convicted.
The jury in Manhattan state court heard from 22 witnesses during about a month of testimony in Manhattan’s criminal court. Jurors also weighed other evidence — mostly documents like phone records, invoices and checks to Michael Cohen, Trump’s once loyal “fixer,” who paid adult-film star Stormy Daniels to keep quiet about her story of an alleged affair with the former president.
After about a day-and-a-half of deliberations, the 12 jurors said they unanimously agreed that Trump falsified business records to conceal a $130,000 hush money payment to Daniels in order to influence the 2016 presidential election.
But the conviction appeared to have little impact on Trump’s popularity — and ultimate electoral victory during the 2024 presidential election. He has used the legal drama to mobilize donations for his campaign and mounting legal fees.
Within 24 hours of the guilty verdict, Trump’s campaign boasted of raising millions of dollars.
And 49% of the nation’s voters in November’s election ultimately chose to bring Trump back to the White House. Todd Blanche, one of Trump’s lawyers on the case, said the electoral results showed voters believed this case was illegitimate, and that he and Trump share the “view that this will never happen again in this country.”
“The voters got a chance to see and decide for themselves if this was a case that should’ve been brought. And they decided,” Blanche said during the hearing on Friday. Trump has nominated Blanche as deputy attorney general in his administration.
Transcript:
STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:
First, President-elect Trump was sentenced this morning, days before taking office, over his New York hush money case. The judge imposed no penalty, as expected – no jail time – and Trump attended the hearing virtually.
A MARTÍNEZ, HOST:
The Supreme Court declined, though, to block Trump’s sentencing. He will come away with a criminal record, though he said he plans to appeal.
INSKEEP: NPR political reporter Ximena Bustillo has been covering this trial. Good morning.
XIMENA BUSTILLO, BYLINE: Good morning.
INSKEEP: Work out the background for us. What’s at stake here?
BUSTILLO: Well, this was a big part of the early 2024 presidential election. Trump brought the campaign trail to New York using the trial as a way to speak to the press, hold events and talk about his political platform. But, ultimately, even with a criminal conviction, voters elected him into the White House. Now Trump continues to call the trial a political witch hunt.
There was a lot of speculation over how a trial, a conviction and even a sentencing could affect Trump’s ability to win. Yet, on election night, Trump decidedly won it in the court of public opinion and will be the first convicted felon to be sworn into the Oval Office later this month. Legal experts say that this sentencing brings a much-needed finality to the trial and formally convicts him.
INSKEEP: I did have a look at the court’s finding on this. It’s not an extended ruling, but they put a few words out. What did they say?
BUSTILLO: Well, last night, five justices of the Supreme Court, a court majority, agreed to allow the sentencing to proceed. In their decision, the court said that any concerns Trump had about the case should be first litigated through the lower courts. The justices also said that the sentencing will inflict a relatively light burden on him since New York Judge Juan Merchan intends to impose that sentence of unconditional discharge. Still, key to note that four conservative justices would’ve sided with Trump, meaning that he was just one justice away from not having to be sentenced today.
INSKEEP: Yeah. This is really, really interesting. They knew in advance that the president-elect wasn’t going to be punished or wasn’t going to even have to travel to Manhattan, and even so, there were four justices who were willing to side with Trump and delay the sentencing in whatever sense it would be inconvenient to the president-elect. But still, it goes forward and reminds people of what this case was about. What was it that Trump was convicted of?
BUSTILLO: At the center of the prosecution’s case were 34 invoices, checks and ledgers that outlined a $130,000 payment to adult film star Stormy Daniels. Prosecutors argued that Trump paid off Daniels when he was running in the 2016 presidential election in order to keep her quiet about an alleged affair. The jurors ultimately convicted Trump of 34 felony counts of falsifying business records.
INSKEEP: And how has Trump challenged that case?
BUSTILLO: Trump has sought to delay and throw out the whole case, especially after the Supreme Court ruled that presidents have broad immunity for official acts. Merchan, the New York judge that I mentioned, agreed to postpone the sentence several times. At one point, he agreed to push it until after the 2024 presidential election to avoid any perception of political bias. Merchan also delayed to allow Trump to make the case that he had immunity because of some evidence in the trial that overlapped with his time as president. But Merchan said that sentencing should proceed.
INSKEEP: And where does the case go now?
BUSTILLO: Well, Trump has tapped in several of his personal lawyers on the case to join him in this next administration. That includes John Sauer, who appealed this case to the Supreme Court and, if confirmed by the Senate, will be representing the federal government at the Supreme Court level as solicitor general. Trump has vowed to appeal the case, but, moving forward, some ethical questions remain over his lawyer’s ability to do so while serving in the executive branch.
INSKEEP: This is what the Supreme Court said. If he has concerns about the case, pursue them in an ordinary appeal, they said. NPR’s Ximena Bustillo, thanks so much.
BUSTILLO: Thank you.
(SOUNDBITE OF KASIMIR’S “MY BIKE”)
