Live Updates: Trump Is Sentenced in N.Y. Criminal Case and Will Avoid Jail
The president-elect’s sentence on 34 counts of falsifying business records formalizes his status as a felon and makes him the first to carry that distinction into the White House. He had fought to avoid the proceeding at every turn.
Pinned
After months of delay, President-elect Donald J. Trump on Friday became the first American president to be criminally sentenced.
He avoided jail or any other substantive punishment, but the proceeding carried symbolic importance: It formalized Mr. Trump’s status as a felon, making him the first to carry that dubious designation into the presidency.
This is one of two legal fights that have continued for Trump. The other is his effort to delay the release of the special counsel Jack Smith’s reports about his two investigations.
Overall, Justice Merchan’s statement was far less scathing than might have been expected. He was primarily focused on distinguishing Trump the individual from Trump the president-elect, and asserting that it is the office that deserves extensive legal protections, rather than the man.
On Friday, Justice Juan M. Merchan sentenced Donald J. Trump to an unconditional discharge, a rare and lenient sentence in New York state courts that still cements Mr. Trump’s status as a felon before his inauguration.
A conditional discharge would have required him to meet certain conditions, like maintaining employment or paying restitution, but Mr. Trump will not be subject to any requirements going forward.
As Merchan finishes, Trump says nothing. The camera is abruptly turned off, and that is that.
Justice Merchan, as expected, sentences Trump to an unconditional discharge. He wishes Trump “Godspeed” as he prepares to assume his second term in office. The judge leaves the bench.
“Donald Trump the ordinary citizen, Donald Trump the criminal defendant” would not be entitled to the protections of the presidency, Justice Merchan asserts. It is only that office that shields him from the seriousness of the verdict.
Justice Merchan’s words here are probably the last time that Trump will have any kind of reminder of the limitations of his official power as president.
Justice Merchan, in explaining the expected sentence of unconditional discharge, says that the office of president carries with it a “legal mandate,” but that it does not take away from the seriousness of the jury verdict.
In fact, Justice Merchan just spelled that out clearly, that the protections are afforded to the office, not its occupant. Trump looks grim, sitting back a bit in his seat.
Justice Merchan is, in his way, trying to underscore that a president is still simply a citizen, even with the broad immunity the Supreme Court has recently given presidents for official acts.
Justice Merchan is reflecting on his time on the bench, and some of the heinous crimes to which he’s sentenced defendants in the past. He remarks that never before has the court been presented with such a “unique and remarkable set of circumstances.” And yet the trial was a paradox, he says, because once the courtroom doors were closed, it was no different from the other trials held in this courthouse.
The judge, Juan Merchan, has begun to speak. He will explain the reasoning behind his sentence before he imposes it. He begins calmly, reading from a sheet in front of him.
“I was treated very, very unfairly, and I thank you very much,” Trump concludes.
Trump again falsely insists that the Justice Department is “very involved,” and singles out Matthew Colangelo. He says they “got them to move on me.” The lawyer sitting next to him, Todd Blanche, is his choice to be the No. 2 official at the Justice Department.
Trump can talk for as long as he wants unless the judge decides otherwise, and he is taking advantage of the unencumbered time, speaking to a courtroom in which he sat quietly for weeks, listening to witnesses discuss him without being able to respond.
Trump sees himself as his own best publicist, economic adviser and, ultimately, lawyer. And he was never likely to miss an opportunity to define this case in his own words.
Trump continues to assert the importance of the election over the verdict, saying that voters got to see this “firsthand.” The trial was not broadcast, though, and many voters were not able to follow it as closely as he is implying. Audio from today’s hearing will be the first nonwritten recording of this case proceeding to which the general public will have access.
Trump again complains about the gag order that he’s been under. “I assume I’m still under a gag order,” Trump says. Then he adds, “But the fact is, I’m totally innocent.”
Trump calls Michael Cohen, his own former lawyer and fixer who was a key witness during the trial, a “totally discredited person.” He says Cohen has “no standing, he’s been disbarred on other matters.” He says that Cohen was allowed to talk as if he was George Washington. “But he’s not George Washington.”
Trump says that people in the country got to see the case “first-hand” and then he won. He points to the fact that he won all seven key swing states.
Trump, as his lawyer Todd Blanche did, refers to “legal experts” who he says thought the case shouldn’t have been brought. He’s going through a litany of people, from cable pundits to conservative legal experts.
Trump seems to be reading from something in front of him. He is saying a version of what he has said before, that the payment to Stormy Daniels was a legal expense and that his accountants had logged it that way. He alludes to someone working with his “opponent,” indicating President Biden.
This may be a reference to Matthew Colangelo, a prosecutor who worked at the Justice Department before the district attorney recruited him back to New York. Trump and his allies have attacked Colangelo repeatedly.
Alvin Bragg, the Manhattan district attorney, blinks in the second row of the gallery, as Trump falsely asserts that it was not he who decided to bring the case.
