President-elect Donald Trump was sentenced on his hush money conviction on Friday morning after the Supreme Court denied delaying the court proceeding.
Trump was convicted in May 2024 on 34 counts of falsifying business records trying to cover up hush money paid to adult film actress Stormy Daniels with whom Trump had an alleged affair, The Associated Press reported.
The prosecution during today’s hearing is being handled by Joshua Steinglass. Trump is being represented by Todd Blanche who is sitting next to the president-elect on the conference call.
Update 12:39 p.m. ET Jan. 10: Trump posted to Truth Social in response to Friday’s sentencing, “The Radical Democrats have lost another pathetic, unAmerican Witch Hunt.” He added, “I was given an UNCONDITIONAL DISCHARGE. 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.”
Update 10:06 a.m. ET Jan. 10: Judge Juan Merchan sentences Trump to unconditional discharge as expected.
“However the considerable, indeed extraordinary legal protections afforded the office of the chief executive is a factor that overrides all others,” Merchan said, CNN reported. “They do not reduce the seriousness of the crime or justify its commission in any way,” he added in reference to the legal protections afforded by being president.
The unconditional discharge officially means that Trump is a convicted felon, but he has no threat of jail time or fine, the AP and CNN explained. Trump faced up to four years in prison, the AP reported. Trump said he plans to appeal the conviction, saying in a Thursday news conference before the sentencing, “We’re going to appeal anyway, just psychologically, because frankly it’s a disgrace,” The New York Times reported.
Update 10:03 a.m. ET Jan. 10: Judge Juan Merchan said that a judge must consider all facts as well as aggravating and mitigating circumstances, the AP reported.
“Never before has this court been presented with such a unique and remarkable set of circumstances,” he said. He called the case “truly extraordinary.”
Update 10:01 a.m. ET Jan. 10: “The fact is I’m totally innocent. I did nothing wrong,” Trump said.
Update 9:56 a.m. ET Jan. 10: Trump speaks, saying, “This has been a very terrible experience. I think it has been a tremendous setback for New York and the New York court system,” the AP reported. He reiterated that the case was a “political witch hunt,” “done to damage my reputation.” He then said that it didn’t work and that he won the popular vote by “millions and millions of votes,” CNN reported.
Update 9:55 a.m. ET Jan. 10: Blanch said, “I very, very much disagree with much of what the government just said about this case, about the legitimacy of what happened in this courtroom during the trial, and about President Trump’s conduct fighting this case,” CNN reported. He added, “It’s a very sad day. It’s a sad day for President Trump, for his family and friends, but also in counsel’s view, a sad day for this country.”
Update 9:53 a.m. ET Jan. 10: Blanche addresses the court.
Update 9:51 a.m. ET Jan. 10: Steinglass said that the probation officer who wrote the probation report that Trump believed he was “above the law,” CNN reported. But he added that the unconditional discharge is the “most practical sentence prior to his inauguration,” the AP reported.
Update 9:42 a.m. ET Jan. 10: The prosecution says “Your honor indicated an inclination to impose an unconditional discharge under all the circumstances of this case, this unique posture and the defendant’s status as president-elect, the people recommend a sentence of unconditional discharge,” CNN reported.
Prosecutor Joshua Steinglass noted that the jury handed down a unanimous verdict convicting Trump in May. He said that some of the felonies that Trump was convicted of could have had prison time but others did not have the penalty.
Steinglass said that Trump did not have remorse for the “criminal conduct.”
Trump was seen on the video shaking his head as Steinglass speaks, the AP reported.
Update 9:40 a.m. ET Jan. 10: Judge says, “Let’s impose sentence please.”
Update 9:36 a.m. ET Jan. 10: The judge has taken the bench, CNN reported. Trump is appearing virtually in court as planned. One of the attorneys representing Trump, and appearing with him virtually, is Todd Blanche, the president-elect’s selection as the No. 2 person at the Department of Justice, the AP reported.
Original report: Trump’s attorney at the time, Michael Cohen, paid $130,000 to Daniels in 2016 to keep quiet as Trump ran for president for the first time. Trump paid Cohen the money back in 2017 while president, marking the payments as legal fees.
“There was nothing else it could have been called,” Trump wrote on Truth Social recently. “I was hiding nothing.” He has consistently said it was the only way to document the money paid.
Despite the conviction, Judge Juan Merchan said he does not plan to sentence the president-elect to jail time, probation or fines, the AP reported. Still, the criminal conviction will be a first for a president, CNN reported. The sentencing comes 10 days before Trump is sworn in for a second term.
The no-penalty sentence called an unconditional discharge, is being used to avoid constitutional issues that could happen if a sentence coincided with Trump’s term in the White House.
Trump is expected to appear in court via video from Mar-a-Lago in Palm Beach, Florida.
Trump has long denied any affair between himself and Daniels and said that the case was brought to damage his political reputation.
“I never falsified business records. It is a fake, made up charge,” he wrote on Truth Social as late as last week, the AP reported.
Trump’s attorney said he wanted to keep the allegations quiet not for his campaign, but to spare his family members, according to the AP.
The president-elect has tried to appeal the case in New York and federally, going as far as the Supreme Court. The high court ruled in July that presidents had some immunity from prosecution which he argued applied to this case. However, Trump was a private citizen when the payments were made to Daniels. The reimbursements were made while Trump was in office.
Trump had initially been scheduled to be sentenced in July but it was repeatedly delayed. Last week Merchan set Jan. 10 as the date citing “finality” as the need.
The Supreme Court ruled Thursday night 5-4 not to delay the sentencing.
The majority included Chief Justice John Roberts and Justices Sonia Sotomayor, Amy Coney Barrett, Elena Kagan and Ketanji Brown Jackson. The dissenting justices were Clarence Thomas, Samuel Alito, Neil Gorsuch and Brett Kavanaugh.
The decision read that “the burden that sentencing will impose on the President-Elect’s responsibilities is relatively insubstantial in light of the trial court’s stated intent to impose a sentence of ‘unconditional discharge’ after a brief virtual hearing,” according to SCOTUSblog.
Despite the ruling, Trump can still appeal which he appears intended to do.
Trump said during a news conference Thursday, “We’re going to appeal anyway, just psychologically, because frankly it’s a disgrace,” The New York Times reported.
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