President-elect Donald Trump prepares to speak at the conservative gathering AmericaFest in Phoenix on Dec. 29, 2024. (Photo by Gage Skidmore | CC BY-SA 2.0)
WASHINGTON — President-elect Donald Trump is scheduled to be sentenced in New York on 34 felony convictions on Jan. 10, just days ahead of his presidential inauguration, according to an order issued Friday by New York Justice Juan Merchan.
Merchan wrote he won’t seek incarceration for Trump but rather an “unconditional discharge” that would leave Trump with a criminal record in New York but avoids any serious penalties. A Trump spokesperson on Friday indicated the president-elect would fight the sentencing.
Trump, who is set to be sworn in as the 47th president on Jan. 20, has all but seen his multiple criminal cases go quiet after winning the 2024 presidential election in November.
Trump made history in May as the first former president to become a convicted felon after a jury found him guilty of falsifying business records to hide a hush-money scheme involving his personal lawyer Michael Cohen and adult film actress Stormy Daniels ahead of the 2016 presidential election.
Trump’s New York sentencing date was delayed multiple times, including shortly after Trump’s win on Nov. 5 prompted Merchan to pause and examine moving forward with sentencing a president-elect.
Trump’s attorneys also held up their client’s sentencing as they fought evidence presented in the case after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in July that former presidents are shielded from criminal prosecution for official acts.
Merchan ultimately ruled on Dec. 16 that the majority of Trump’s case “related entirely to unofficial conduct entitled to no immunity protection.”
No jail time for Trump
In his Friday order, Merchan said the complex situation involving Trump likely will never be seen again.
“Finding no legal impediment to sentencing and recognizing that Presidential immunity will likely attach once Defendant takes his Oath of Office, it is incumbent upon this Court to set this matter down for the imposition of sentence prior to January 20, 2025,” Merchan wrote, adding that all further avenues have been exhausted “in what is an unprecedented, and likely never to be repeated legal scenario.”
“This Court must sentence Defendant within a reasonable time following verdict; and Defendant must be permitted to avail himself of every available appeal, a path he has made clear he intends to pursue but which only becomes fully available upon sentencing,” Merchan continued.
Merchan has given Trump the option to appear in person or virtually for the sentencing.
Merchan’s order comes as the U.S. Department of Justice special counsel Jack Smith, citing a longstanding protocol of not prosecuting sitting presidents, closed Trump’s two federal cases — one alleging election interference in the 2020 presidential election, and the other focused on classified documents illegally stashed at Trump’s Florida resort after his first presidency.
‘Witch Hunt’
Steven Cheung, Trump communications director, issued a statement Friday criticizing Merchan as “deeply conflicted” and alleging the judge is in “direct violation of the Supreme Court’s Immunity decision and other longstanding jurisprudence.”
“This lawless case should have never been brought and the Constitution demands that it be immediately dismissed,” Cheung continued. “President Trump must be allowed to continue the Presidential Transition process and to execute the vital duties of the presidency, unobstructed by the remains of this or any remnants of the Witch Hunts. There should be no sentencing, and President Trump will continue fighting against these hoaxes until they are all dead.”
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