Donald Trump sentenced in hush money case, will not face prison or probation

• Donald Trump was sentenced without penalty for his felony conviction in the hush money trial.
• Justice Juan Merchan gave Trump an unconditional discharge, citing the presidency’s broad protections.
• Trump criticised the case, while prosecutors said his rhetoric damaged public perception of the justice system.

Donald Trump was sentenced without penalty overnight for his felony conviction in his hush money trial, appearing virtually at what was likely his final court hearing as a criminal defendant before he is sworn in for another term in the White House.

Trump, who was convicted on 34 felony counts of falsifying business records last year, had furiously sought to cancel the sentencing, appealing to the US Supreme Court and arguing it would interfere with his presidential transition. His efforts were unsuccessful and 10 days before his inauguration on January 20, Trump appeared on a video screen in the same Manhattan courthouse where he stood trial last year.

New York Supreme Court Justice Juan Merchan, who oversaw the trial and handed down the sentence, gave Trump an unconditional discharge, meaning the US President-elect will not face time behind bars, a fine or probation.

The presidency carries with it broad protections, Merchan said, and this sentence was the only one possible “without encroaching on the highest office of the land”.

Attorney Todd Blanche (L) and US President-elect Donald Trump appear virtually for sentencing after Trump was found guilty on 34 felony counts in his hush money criminal trial last year. Photo / AFP

Trump, who did not attend the New York hearing but participated remotely, excoriated the case and the people involved, saying he was mistreated and remained innocent of any wrongdoing.

“I just want to say I think it’s an embarrassment to New York,” Trump said.

The President-elect has long criticised the trial and officials involved in it, repeatedly attacking Merchan and Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg (D), whose office prosecuted the case.

Joshua Steinglass, one of the prosecutors, said during the sentencing hearing that Trump’s rhetoric has “caused enduring damage to the public perception” of the justice system.

“The defendant sees himself as above the law,” Steinglass said, “and won’t accept responsibility for his actions.”

Donald Trump seen at the defendant's table inside the courthouse in May last year, as the jury was scheduled to continue deliberations for his hush money trial at Manhattan Criminal Court. Photo / AFP

While the hearing’s outcome was foreseen — Merchan had indicated last week Trump would face no jail time or other penalty — it was nonetheless an extraordinary moment in American history, marking the first time a former President or an incoming one was sentenced for a felony conviction.

Despite the conviction carrying with it the possibility of up to four years in prison, Trump instead walked free without any sanction.

But Trump had still tried and failed to avoid the sentencing, with his lawyers arguing the proceeding should be called off because it would “disrupt the enormously burdensome and sensitive tasks of the presidential transition”.

Merchan issued a ruling last week upholding Trump’s conviction and scheduling the sentencing for Friday local time. A New York appeals court judge this week rejected Trump’s request to delay his sentencing, and the Supreme Court on Thursday declined a similar request.

After Merchan’s ruling last week, Trump wrote on social media that he was “a radical partisan” and said his ruling “would be the end of the Presidency as we know it”.

The sentencing capped off a remarkable, years-long period of criminal jeopardy for Trump, who had been charged in four separate criminal cases — in New York, Florida, Georgia and Washington, DC — all while campaigning for another term as President.

But this ebullition of legal jeopardy eventually faltered and faded. Last summer, US District Judge Aileen M. Cannon, a Trump appointee in Florida, dismissed the case there that had accused him of mishandling classified materials.

After Trump won the presidency in November, special counsel Jack Smith dropped the DC case accusing Trump of obstructing the 2020 election. In Georgia, where Trump still faces charges of conspiring to overturn his 2020 electoral loss, an appeals court last month disqualified the prosecutor leading the case, leaving its fate unclear.

Alone among these cases, the Manhattan prosecution — which some legal analysts had questioned, calling it the weakest of the four indictments — actually went to trial and put Trump’s fate before a jury.

Trump stood accused of falsifying business records to conceal a hush money payment to Stormy Daniels, an adult-film actor who had alleged for years that the two of them had sex a decade before he first won the presidency.

The case revolved around a US$130,000 ($186,000 at the time) payment Daniels received in exchange for not publicly sharing her account during the 2016 presidential election. Prosecutors had said it was illegal to classify the payments as legal fees, accusing Trump of managing an extensive “conspiracy to influence the 2016 election”.

Michael Cohen, Trump’s former attorney and fixer, paid Daniels and then received monthly reimbursements logged as legal fees in documents maintained by Trump’s business. During the trial, Cohen told jurors he arranged Daniels’ payment at Trump’s direction; he was the only witness who said Trump was directly involved.

Trump has denied having sex with Daniels, and his defence attorneys said the payments to Cohen were properly classified and that he was repaid for legal services. They also took biting aim at Cohen, who previously pleaded guilty to lying to Congress and other crimes, painting the prosecution’s key witness as fundamentally unreliable.

Jurors in the case spent a little more than a day deliberating before unanimously voting to convict Trump on all counts. Trump had faced potential prison time as a result of the conviction, though given his age and lack of any criminal record, such a stiff penalty had seemed unlikely.

He was originally set to be sentenced on July 11, but that was pushed back after the Supreme Court ruled that presidents have immunity for official acts. Trump’s attorneys have argued that his conviction in New York should be thrown out because of the Supreme Court’s decision.

In their filing to the Supreme Court this week, they predicted that appeals would lead to “the dismissal of the District Attorney’s politically motivated prosecution that was flawed from the very beginning”.

The filing came from three lawyers Trump said he plans to name to top Justice Department roles in his incoming administration: Todd Blanche, his pick for deputy attorney general; Emil Bove, his selection for principal associate deputy attorney general; and D. John Sauer, who he wants to serve as solicitor general, an administration’s top lawyer before the Supreme Court.

Shayna Jacobs is a federal courts and law enforcement reporter on the national security team at the Washington Post. Derek Hawkins is a reporter and editor on the Washington Post’s National desk. Mark Berman is a national reporter for the Washington Post who covers law enforcement and criminal justice issues.