NEW YORK, NY—Manhattan Supreme Court Judge Juan Merchan on January 10 sentenced President-elect Donald J Trump to an “unconditional discharge” in his May 2024 conviction case involving 34 felony counts of falsifying business records in connection with $130,000 in money payments to his then-lawyer Michael Cohen who then paid to porn star Stormy Daniels before the 2016 presidential election.
An unconditional discharge essentially means the conviction stands but there is no prison time, no fine, no community service, nor probation—the case is done, and Trump is a convicted felon. However, New York state Governor Kathy Hochul could grant Trump a pardon.
Trump faced a maximum sentence of 136 years—four years per charge. Being all are a Class E Felony, the least severe felony charge in New York state and with no prior criminal history, it was unlikely Trump would be sentenced to prison.
The Class E felony charges, which are usually treated as misdemeanors, came almost six years after the “payoffs.” New York’s statute of limitations are two years for misdemeanor offenses and five years for certain felony offenses.
President-elect Trump released in a statement on Truth Social that the radical Democrats lost their witch hunt against him.
“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.”
During the trial, Trump exposed the relationship between Justice Merchan, who presided over the case, and the Biden administration. The Daily Mail reported that Merchan’s daughter, Loren, 34, was the former digital director for then-candidate Kamala Harris’ 2020 presidential campaign and is now partner and president of Authentic Campaigns, a progressive digital firm, and worked on several high-profile Democratic campaigns – including for President Joe Biden.
Both Cohen and Daniels testified that the money was to prevent her from selling to media outlets her story of having sex with Trump one time in 2006. Daniels implied that the sex was a power imbalance and claimed that Trump “was bigger and blocking the way.”
However, earlier in May of 2024, political pundit Bill Maher, played video clip from a 2018 interview between him and Daniels where she said multiple times her sexual encounter with Trump was consensual.
“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,” Trump wrote on X following his sentencing. “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!”
The sentencing was allowed to go forward after the Supreme Court decided 5-4 on January 9 to reject Trump’s request to drop the proceeding.
Judge Merchan on January 3 rejected a request that he dismiss the New York criminal hush money case against President-elect Trump and set Trump’s sentencing for January 10.
Trump is to be sworn in as the 47th President of the United States on January 20, 2025.
Author: Mario Lotmore
