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Key Points
- Donald Trump has been spared any punishment for his criminal conviction stemming from a hush money payment.
- Justice Juan Merchan has sentenced Trump to unconditional discharge, drawing the case to a close.
- Trump was found guilty in May of 34 counts of falsifying business records.
But he said the protections afforded to the office “do not reduce the seriousness of a crime or justify its commission in any way”.
Donald Trump appeared remotely for his sentencing hearing alongside his lawyer. Source: AAP, AP / Angela Weiss
“The considerable, indeed extraordinary, legal protection afforded by the office of the chief executive is a factor that overrides all others,” Merchan said.
“Despite the extraordinary breadth of those protections, one power they do not provide is the power to erase jury verdicts.”
Trump set to appeal guilty verdict
“I’m totally innocent, I did nothing wrong,” he said.
“Now that it is over, we will appeal this hoax,” Trump wrote in a social media post after the hearing on Friday.
The six-week trial last year played out against the extraordinary backdrop of Trump’s successful campaign to retake the White House.
Protesters outside Manhattan Criminal Court during Donald Trump’s sentencing. Source: AAP, SIPA USA / Anthony Behar
Bragg, a Democrat, charged Trump, a Republican, in March 2023 with 34 counts of falsifying business records to cover up his former lawyer Michael Cohen’s US$130,000 ($210,000) payment to adult film star Stormy Daniels for her silence before the 2016 election about a sexual encounter she said she had with Trump, who denied it.
Trump argued the case — along with three other criminal indictments and civil lawsuits accusing him of fraud, defamation and sexual abuse — was an effort by opponents to weaponise the justice system against him and harm his re-election campaign.
Trump pleaded not guilty in all cases.
