NEW YORK: A judge sentenced US President-elect Donald Trump to an unconditional discharge on Friday for covering up hush money payments to a porn star despite his last-ditch efforts to avoid becoming the first felon in the White House.

The judge spared President-elect Trump prison or a fine even though the 34 counts of falsifying business records on which he was convicted in May 2024 carried potential jail time.

Instead, New York judge Juan Merchan handed down the mildest criminal sanction available, an unconditional discharge — a relatively uncommon measure. “Never before has this court been presented with such a unique and remarkable set of circumstances,” Merchan said.

“The only lawful sentence that permits entry of a judgment of conviction without encroaching on the highest office of the land is an unconditional discharge.”

Trump attended his sentencing virtually, with the judge, lawyers and media packed into the scruffy Manhattan courtroom that was the backdrop to the trial’s high drama, legal wrangling and vitriolic personal attacks by the divisive Republican.

“This has been a very terrible experience. I think it’s been a tremendous setback for New York and the New York court system,” Trump said before the discharge was passed.

“It was done to damage my reputation, so I would lose the election.”

The president-elect appeared on screens in the courtroom with two large US flags behind him, wearing a red tie with white stripes and looking on impatiently as the brief proceeding unfolded.

Ahead of the sentencing, prosecutor Joshua Steinglass said Trump had been convicted of a “premeditated and continuous deception.” “The verdict in this case was unanimous and decisive and it must be respected,” he said.

The trial saw Trump forced to look on as a string of witnesses testified that he had fraudulently covered up illicit payments to porn star Stormy Daniels in an effort to stop her disclosing their tryst ahead of the 2016 presidential election, which he ultimately won.

Trump had sought a suspension of the criminal proceedings after a New York State appeals court dismissed his effort to have the hearing delayed. But the Supreme Court ruled that the sentencing could proceed.

Prosecutors opposed the effort to stave off sentencing, 10 days before Trump is due to be sworn in for a second term, arguing it was wrong for the apex court to hear the case when the mogul still had avenues of appeal to pursue in New York.

First presidential conviction

An unconditional discharge is a measure without any sanctions or restriction that nonetheless upholds the jury’s guilty verdict — and Trump’s infamy as the first former president to be convicted of a felony.

The 78-year-old Trump had potentially faced up to four years in prison.

The president-elect called his criminal prosecution a “disgrace to the system”, ahead of his sentencing. “It was done to damage my reputation so I would lose the election and obviously that didn’t work,” he said. “It’s a disgrace to the system.”

Outside the courthouse, Trump supporters held a giant banner emblazoned with their idol’s name that was buffeted by high winds. There was also a small vigil of anti-Trump demonstrators behind a hoarding reading “Trump is guilty.”

Trump’s counsel had argued sentencing should have been postponed while the Republican appealed his conviction, but New York state Associate Justice Ellen Gesmer rejected that on Tuesday.

He repeatedly called the prosecution a “witch hunt” that Steinglass said was “designed to have a chilling effect”. “This defendant has caused enduring damage to public perception of the criminal justice system,” the career prosecutor said.

The defence lawyer Todd Blanche said he “very, very much disagree with much of what the (prosecution) just said”.

Trump was certified as the winner of the 2024 presidential election on Monday, four years after his supporters rioted at the US Capitol as he sought to overturn his 2020 defeat.

Published in Dawn, January 11th, 2025