Judge in Trump's hush money case signals no prison time at sentencing

NEW YORK (AP) In an extraordinary turn of events, a judge on Friday set sentencing for President-elect Donald Trump in his hush money case for Jan. 10 a little more than a week before he returns to the White House, but indicated that he would not be imprisoned. .

The development nonetheless leaves Trump on track to become the first president to take office convicted of felony crimes.

READ MORE: Prosecutors suggest ending Trump hush money case while upholding conviction

Judge Juan M. Merchan, who presided over Trump's trial, indicated in a written ruling that he would sentence the former and future president to what is known as an absolute discharge, in which a case is closed without penalty prison, fine or probation. Trump can appear virtually for sentencing, if he chooses.

Merchan wrote that he sought to balance competing interests: Trump's ability to govern unencumbered by the affair, the U.S. Supreme Court's July ruling on presidential immunity, public expectation that all are equal and no one is above the law, and the importance of respecting a jury. verdict.

This court is simply not convinced that the first factor outweighs the others at this stage of the proceedings, Merchan wrote in an 18-page decision.

He rejected Trump's push to overturn the verdict and drop the case on grounds of presidential immunity and because of his looming second term. The judge said he found no legal impediment to convicting Trump and indeed believed it was the court's responsibility to conduct the proceedings before Inauguration Day, Jan. 20.

Only by bringing this matter to an end will the interests of justice be served, Merchan wrote.

Trump's communications director, Steven Cheung, reiterated that the case, which Trump has long called illegitimate, should be dismissed outright.

There should be no convictions and President Trump will continue to fight these hoaxes until they are all dead, Cheung said in a statement. He did not provide details on Trump's potential next legal moves.

Former Manhattan judge Diane Kiesel said the decision could not be appealed under New York law, but that Trump could still try to appeal. Regardless, he can appeal his conviction, a step that cannot be taken until he has been sentenced.

I'm a little curious as to why it took so long, but I don't want to criticize the judge on that because I have no idea what his other workload is like and I know it's something something he wanted to make sure was right. because as soon as Mr. Trump is convicted, everyone will rush to the appellate division, Kiesel said.

Trump was convicted in May of 34 counts of falsifying business records. They involved an alleged scheme to hide the payment of a sum of money to porn actor Stormy Daniels during the final weeks of Trump's first campaign in 2016. The payment was made to prevent him from posting claims she had sex with married Trump years earlier. He says his story is false and he did nothing wrong.

After Trump's election on November 5, Merchan halted the proceedings and postponed sentencing indefinitely so that the defense and prosecution could weigh in on the future of the case.

Trump's lawyers urged Merchan to throw it out. They said it would lead to unconstitutional disruptions in the new president's ability to lead the country.

Prosecutors acknowledged there should be accommodations for his next presidency, but they insisted the conviction should stand.

They suggested various options, such as freezing the case while he is in office or guaranteeing him a no-jail sentence. They also proposed closing the case while formally noting both his conviction and his appeal undecided, a novel idea taken from what some state courts do when criminal defendants die while appealing their cases .

Merchan ruled that Trump's current status as president-elect does not give him the same immunity as a sitting president. Overturning the verdict and dismissing the case would be a drastic step and would undermine the rule of law in immeasurable ways, Merchan wrote. He reasoned that it would also not address the Supreme Court's concerns about presidential immunity.

Trump takes office on January 20 as the first former president to be convicted of a crime and the first convicted felon to be elected to office.

His conviction exposes the 78-year-old to a sentence ranging from a fine or probation to four years in prison.

The case centered on how Trump reimbursed his personal lawyer for paying Daniels.

The lawyer, Michael Cohen, financed the case. He then recouped it through a series of payments that the Trump company recorded as legal fees. Trump, then in the White House, signed most of the checks himself.

Prosecutors said the designation was intended to conceal the true purpose of the payments and cover up a broader effort to prevent voters from hearing unflattering claims about the Republican during his first campaign.

Trump said Cohen was legitimately paid for legal services and that Daniel's story was suppressed to avoid embarrassing Trump's family and not to influence the electorate.

Trump was a private citizen campaigning for the presidency, but neither elected nor sworn in when Cohen paid Daniels in October 2016. He was president when Cohen was reimbursed, and Cohen testified that they discussed reimbursement terms in the office Oval.

Trump, a Republican, denounced the verdict as the rigged and shameful result of a witch hunt led by Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg, a Democrat.

Before Trump's election in November, his lawyers sought to overturn his conviction for a different reason: the Supreme Court's immunity ruling, which gave presidents broad protection from criminal prosecution.

Trump's lawyers argued the jury obtained evidence that should have been protected by presidential immunity. Merchan later rejected this argument, but in the meantime the election has raised new questions.

While urging Merchan to overturn the conviction, Trump also sought to take the case to federal court, where he could also assert his immunity. A federal judge repeatedly said no, but Trump appealed.

The hush money case was the only one of Trump's four criminal indictments to go to trial.

Since the election, special counsel Jack Smith has terminated his two federal cases. One concerned Trump's efforts to overturn his 2020 election defeat; the other alleged he stockpiled classified documents at his Mar-a-Lago estate.

A separate state-level election interference case in Georgia is in limbo after an appeals court removed prosecutor Fani Willis from the case.

Trump's lawyers argued that Smith's decision to dismiss the federal indictments against Trump should also lead to the dismissal of the hush money case in New York. But Merchan said he found that argument unconvincing, pointing out that the financial silence case was at a very different stage.

Trump's sentencing was initially set for July 11, then postponed twice at the request of the defense.

Associated Press writer Larry Neumeister contributed.

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