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Donald Trump has been spared punishment because of his “hush money” conviction, escaping any sentence in the history of the criminal case days before he re-entered the White House.
At a hearing in Manhattan on Friday, there Trump Appearing at his Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida, Justice Juan Merchan refused to sentence the president-elect to prison time or impose any fines, instead granting him an “unconditional release”.
Merchan, who presided over the first criminal trial against the former president of the United States in the spring, made brief comments before declaring his decision “the only legal verdict . . . without entering the highest position in the world”.
He added that, despite the “far-reaching protection” given to office holders, they “do not reduce the seriousness of the crime” and do not give them “the power to overturn a judge's sentence”.
Trump, wearing a hooded robe and looking grim, had previously criticized the case, calling it a “tool of the government” and saying Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg, who sat in court, did not want to bring charges.
“I am completely innocent, I have done nothing wrong. . . I'm charged with billing legal fees as legal fees,” Trump said in court. “I think it's a shame for New York.”
The programs drew little of the media attention that accompanied Trump's seven-week trial last year, which took place in the middle of his third presidential campaign. It marks a symbolic end to years of efforts by federal prosecutors and prosecutors to convict Trump on a number of criminal charges, from trying to overturn the results of the 2020 election to keeping classified documents after his previous move to the White House.
Two criminal cases against the 78-year-old were at risk after the Supreme Court ruled this year that presidents enjoy immunity from prosecution for illegal activities while in office. They are now being fired by Joe Biden's justice department, in keeping with the agency's long-standing policy of not going after sitting presidents.
A case of election interference in Georgia was marred by the failure of a district attorney to disclose an affair with the chief prosecutor who brought the case, which disqualified him.
The Manhattan case, which was the first and only one to reach a verdict, was blocked by Trump's re-election.
Trump was found guilty on 34 counts, after a jury found he had falsified business records related to payments made to porn star Stormy Daniels, who threatened to go public with allegations of an affair with the real-estate mogul. 2016 election.
But Bragg resisted several attempts to delay the verdict. Once Trump attacked Kamala Harris in November, he refused to seek any punishment from the president-elect, beyond Friday's symbolic sentence.
Trump, who has often criticized the process as a “witch hunt” by Democratic prosecutors, nevertheless tried to block the conviction from happening, appealing to the highest courts in New York and the US Supreme Court.
On Thursday night, hours before the verdict was handed down, a 5-4 majority of the Supreme Court refused to accept Trump's request, saying that there was no indication that the procedure would significantly interfere with Trump's preparations to re-enter the White House.
Trump, who has vowed to retaliate against his political enemies and whistleblowers, plans to install many of his top lawyers in key positions, including the Justice Department, when he returns to Washington.