Judge cites Trump’s return to White House as rationale for unconditional discharge sentence
Judge Juan Merchan laid out his rationale for imposing the sentence of unconditional discharge on the president-elect.
“The protections afforded the office of the president are not a mitigating factor. They do not reduce the seriousness of the crime or justify its commission in any way,” the judge said.
“The protections are, however, a legal mandate which, pursuant to the rule of law, this court must respect and follow. However, despite the extraordinary breadth of those protections, one power they do not provide is the power to erase a jury verdict.”
He then handed down his sentence, noting that it is influenced by Trump’s recent presidential election victory:
It was the citizenry of this nation that recently decided that once again you should have the benefits of those protections which include, among other things, the supremacy clause and presidential immunity. It is through that lens and that reality that this court must determine a lawful sentence.
This court has determined that the only lawful sentence that permits entry of judgment of conviction, without encroaching on the highest office of the land is unconditional discharge.
Therefore, at this time, I impose that sentence to cover all 34 counts.
Merchan concluded with: “Sir, I wish you godspeed as you assume your second term in office.”
Key events
Republican House speaker Johnson signals effort to restore ‘the American people’s trust in our system of justice’ after Trump sentencing
Mike Johnson, the Republican speaker of the House of Representatives, assailed Donald Trump’s prosecution on business fraud charges as “a politically motivated and contrived witch hunt” in a statement released after his sentencing today.
The Trump ally also signaled he would support unspecified efforts aimed at “restoring the American people’s trust in our system of justice”. The president-elect’s appointees for key cabinet positions have been critical of efforts to prosecute Trump for various offenses, including the hush money payment that a jury determined ran afoul of New York’s state fraud laws.
Here’s more, from Johnson’s statement:
This entire case against President Trump has been a politically motivated and contrived witch hunt aimed solely at preventing him from returning to the White House. It was never about the facts, and it should have never been brought in the first place. The judge grossly perverted the American legal system by manipulating existing law in a purely partisan effort to convert a bogus misdemeanor charge into a felony. Judge Merchan and the deranged prosecution have done untold damage to our justice system.
But despite this liberal judge’s tireless efforts and obvious media campaign to smear President Trump, the only jury that matters – the American people – saw through this corruption of justice, spoke decisively, and rejected their weaponization of government.
After four years of lawfare, restoring the American people’s trust in our system of justice will be critically important, and I support President Trump’s decision to appeal this decision and put this shameful chapter in American history behind us.
Trump plans to separate himself from family business once he takes office – report
Once he is inaugurated as president, Donald Trump plans to separate himself from his Trump Organization family business, under a set of soon-to-be-released ethics rules, the Wall Street Journal reports.
Ethics groups and Democratic lawmakers have warned of the potential for Trump to enrich his businesses through decisions made in his capacity as US president. Here’s more about the new rules, from the Journal:
President-elect Donald Trump won’t be involved in the day-to-day management of the Trump Organization once he takes office and the company won’t enter into new contracts with foreign governments during his presidency, according to an ethics plan set to be released by the company on Friday.
Prominent lawyer William Burck will assist in developing internal ethics politics and procedures to avoid any perceived conflicts, the company said. “The Trump Organization is dedicated to not just meeting but vastly exceeding its legal and ethical obligations during my father’s presidency,” Eric Trump, the president-elect’s son and the Trump Organization’s executive vice president, said in a statement.
Among other measures, the company said it would voluntarily donate to the U.S. Treasury profits it receives from foreign government officials the company can identify at its hotels and other businesses. The plan states that the president-elect’s investments will be independently managed by outside institutions that will “neither solicit nor accept input” from him.
Trump will also have “limited access” to the company’s financial information. The Trump Organization said it would limit information “to only reflect general business updates of the company as a whole and not an accounting of the performance of any specific business or asset.”
Here are sketches from inside the courtroom as judge Juan Merchan sentenced Donald Trump today:
Republicans have widely condemned Alvin Bragg’s prosecution of Donald Trump on business fraud charges, even after a jury found him guilty of 34 felonies last year.
Following his sentencing today, Republican senator Lindsey Graham accused Bragg of charging the president-elect for political reasons. From a statement issued by the senator:
The New York justice system is beyond anti-Trump. The New York attorney general and Manhattan District Attorney see president Trump as a political prize.
They have singled out President Trump for prosecution for offenses that either never existed before or were cobbled together to get a result and make Trump a felon.
President Trump has been tried in the most liberal state and local jurisdictions in America by the most liberal prosecutors and judges.
The judge in this case rushed this sentencing so that he can tell the world, ‘I made Trump a felon.’ I am sure he will be in great demand on the Manhattan party circuit.
I am confident the judge’s decision will be overturned by the supreme court.
The prosecutor’s statements are a weak attempt to dress up a sham proceeding.
Will justice department special counsel Jack Smith’s report into his attempt to prosecute Donald Trump for allegedly attempting to overturn the 2020 election be released before the president-elect is inaugurated? An appeals court ruling yesterday offered some hope, but did not entirely resolve the question, the Guardian’s Hugo Lowell reports:
A federal appeals court on Thursday rejected an attempt to block special counsel Jack Smith from releasing his final report into the two federal criminal cases he brought against Donald Trump but, crucially, left in place a temporary injunction that prevents it from becoming public.
The order from the US court of appeals for the 11th circuit means the injunction imposed by the US district judge Aileen Cannon who handled the Trump’s prosecution on charges of mishandling classified documents will remain in place for at least three more days.
But the temporary injunction could last longer, Trump’s legal team suggested, pointing to language in Cannon’s decision that made clear the injunction was not her last word on the matter and that she still intended to rule on whether the report should ever be made public.
That language was buried at the end of Cannon’s order on Tuesday, reading: “This Order shall not be construed as the final ruling on the merits of the emergency motion, which remains pending before this court subject to any directives from the Eleventh Circuit.”
With the 11th circuit declining to weigh in, the matter of whether the special counsel report should be publicly released appears set to return to Cannon, the lower court judge who dismissed the documents case in a decision last year that is being challenged by the justice department.
Supreme court hears challenge to law that could lead to TikTok ban
The supreme court is right now hearing oral arguments over a law that will force TikTok’s China-based owner to sell its US operations by 19 January, or face a ban.
It’s a big case involving one of the most popular social media apps in the country. We are blogging the oral arguments live, and you can follow them here:
Trump calls sentencing ‘despicable charade’, says unconditional discharge proves ‘THERE IS NO CASE’
Donald Trump has assailed the hush money case against him in a post on Truth Social, and said the unconditional discharge sentence he was given today is proof that “THERE IS NO CASE”.
Here’s what he wrote:
The Radical Democrats have lost another pathetic, unAmerican Witch Hunt. After spending tens of millions of dollars, wasting over 6 years of obsessive work that should have been spent on protecting New Yorkers from violent, rampant crime that is destroying the City and State, coordinating with the Biden/Harris Department of Injustice in lawless Weaponization, and bringing completely baseless, illegal, and fake charges against your 45th and 47th President, ME, 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. The real Jury, the American People, have spoken, by Re-Electing me with an overwhelming MANDATE in one of the most consequential Elections in History. As the American People have seen, this “case” had no crime, no damages, no proof, no facts, no Law, only a highly conflicted Judge, a star witness who is a disbarred, disgraced, serial perjurer, and criminal Election Interference. Today’s event was a despicable charade, and now that it is over, we will appeal this Hoax, which has no merit, and restore the trust of Americans in our once great System of Justice. MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!
Anna Betts
John Ahern said he flew up from Florida last night so he could be here today.
“This is a travesty of justice” Ahern, 76, said. “I just wanted to be here.”
Ahern, who was also present for Trump’s trial in the spring, lives in New York, but was down in Florida this week, before deciding to fly up for the sentencing.
He spent all day at a Staples store in Florida yesterday printing banners for his protest, he said.
His sign reads, “Enough was enough, we voted!!! Trump won!!!”.
“Ultimately, I’m enthusiastic about what’s going to happen, not just for America, but for the world”, after Trump is inaugurated, he said.
Judge cites Trump’s return to White House as rationale for unconditional discharge sentence
Judge Juan Merchan laid out his rationale for imposing the sentence of unconditional discharge on the president-elect.
“The protections afforded the office of the president are not a mitigating factor. They do not reduce the seriousness of the crime or justify its commission in any way,” the judge said.
“The protections are, however, a legal mandate which, pursuant to the rule of law, this court must respect and follow. However, despite the extraordinary breadth of those protections, one power they do not provide is the power to erase a jury verdict.”
He then handed down his sentence, noting that it is influenced by Trump’s recent presidential election victory:
It was the citizenry of this nation that recently decided that once again you should have the benefits of those protections which include, among other things, the supremacy clause and presidential immunity. It is through that lens and that reality that this court must determine a lawful sentence.
This court has determined that the only lawful sentence that permits entry of judgment of conviction, without encroaching on the highest office of the land is unconditional discharge.
Therefore, at this time, I impose that sentence to cover all 34 counts.
Merchan concluded with: “Sir, I wish you godspeed as you assume your second term in office.”
Judge sentences Trump to unconditional discharge, allowing president-elect to avoid jail time, fines or probation
Judge Juan Merchan has sentenced Donald Trump to unconditional discharge in the hush money case, meaning he will avoid jail time, fines or probation.
“The task is always difficult and deserving of careful consideration – whether the sentence be unconditional discharge or incarceration of 25 years to life,” Merchan began, speaking generally about the challenges and considerations of sentencing a defendant.
“One can argue that the trial was in many respects somewhat ordinary,” Merchan said of how proceedings unfolded, but “the same cannot be said about the circumstances around this sentencing.”
The judge added:
To be sure, it is the legal protections afforded to the office of the president of the United States that are extraordinary – not the occupant of the office.
Trump also claimed that the justice department is involved in the New York case, which is not true.
Manhattan district attorney Alvin Bragg brought the charges against Trump.
The president-elect concluded by saying, “I was treated very, very unfairly” and told Merchan, “Thank you very much.”
Now that Trump is done, the judge is explaining the process behind how a sentence is imposed.
Trump continued to attack the substance of the case against him.
“I get indicted for business records? Everybody should be so accurate. It’s been a political witch hunt … to damage my reputation so that I’d lose the election, obviously that didn’t work,” Trump continued.
He went on to recount how he had won the November election, noting that he had carried every swing state and the popular vote.
“I was under a gag order, I’m the first pesident in history [under] a gag order,” Trump said. “I assume that I’m still under a gag order but the fact is I’m totally innocent, I did nothing wrong.”
The gag order has been a long-running issue in this case, and was imposed on Trump by Merchan after he began attacking various parties to the proceedings. Here’s more about it: