Trump to appear for sentencing on January 10 in hush money case

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The judge in the criminal case against Donald Trump in his home state of New York ordered the president-elect to appear before him on January 10 to face sentencing after the jury found him guilty of 34 charges last year.

In a stunning 18-page ruling released Friday, Judge Juan Merchan said he would not sentence Trump to prison, but instead would impose a sentence of unconditional release, i.e. punishment without jail time, without probation or fine, as the most viable solution. solution and allow Trump to continue to appeal the case.

The hearing is scheduled just ten days before the president-elect's inauguration.

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Donald Trump, pictured in Manhattan Criminal Court, will be sentenced on January 10 for falsifying business records in New York (AP)

A jury of 12 New Yorkers found Trump guilty of 34 counts of falsifying business records in May, after a six-week trial.

Trump falsified business records as part of a scheme to silence adult film maven Stormy Daniels, whose story about her sexual encounters with Trump threatened to derail his 2016 presidential campaign.

Trump's reimbursements to his then-lawyer Michael Cohen, who paid Daniels, were falsely recorded in accounting records as legal fees.

Trump has denied any wrongdoing as well as the affair with Daniels.

Sentencing in the New York criminal trial was originally scheduled to take place in July, but was delayed until September after the Supreme Court issued a ruling on presidential immunity, which protected presidents from criminal prosecution for actions arising from their official duties.

But the sentencing was postponed indefinitely after his victory in the 2024 presidential election, giving the defense and prosecution time to weigh in on how the case should be handled.

Last month, Merchan said the Supreme Court's ruling on presidential immunity for sitting presidents did not apply to his New York criminal case and refused to drop the case entirely, saying the evidence and the testimony concerned only unofficial conduct not afforded any protection of immunity.

Trump's actions were personal acts that fall outside the so-called outer scope of official presidential duties, and there is no risk of intrusion into the authority and function of the executive branch in this matter, wrote Merchan.

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Trump expressed outrage after being found guilty of hiding secret payments to an adult film star before the 2016 presidential election (via REUTERS)

In his Friday order, Merchan said the threat of public stigmatization from prosecution of Trump had long passed, citing Trump's own arguments that courts should defer to the will of authorities who recently re-elected to the executive office, despite a court decision. actual guilty verdict in this case.

Thus, whatever stigma may have existed, it will certainly not interfere with the accused's ability to carry out his duties both as President-elect and as President-in-Office, wrote Merchan.

Merchan noted that Trump had asked that the sentencing be stayed until after the election and called the assertion that his victory in that election changed the circumstances of the case disingenuous.

The defendant has consistently expressed, since the beginning of this case, confidence and even hope that he would prevail in the 2024 election, a confidence that has proven to be well-founded, Merchan wrote.

The fact that he would become president-elect and assume all the responsibilities linked to the transition was entirely predictable, he added.

Trump's request to delay sentencing implied that he would still face sentencing during the window between the election and the swearing-in, Merchan wrote.

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New York Judge Juan Merchan presided over Trump's trial and faced a wave of attacks from Trump and his allies (AP)

In ordering Trump to appear in person or virtually for sentencing, Merchan said the need to respect the jury's verdict against the former president-turned-president-elect made it even more important that Trump be convicted on the charges for which he was found guilty.

He wrote that the sanctity of the jury's verdict and the deference that should be given to it constitute a fundamental principle of American jurisprudence.

The sentence initially carried the possibility that Trump could serve up to four years in prison or thousands of dollars in fines.

Steven Cheung, Trump's communications director, called Merchan's order deeply divisive and a direct violation of the Supreme Court's immunity ruling. He indicated that Trump would object to the sentencing.

This illegal case should never have been brought and the Constitution requires that it be immediately dismissed, Cheung said.

Former Trump lawyer Rudy Giuliani, who was testifying for more than three hours Friday in a federal courtroom down the street from Manhattan Criminal Court when media reports announced Mercans' order, called the sentence absurd.

The end of an unprecedented criminal case that resulted in a president's first criminal conviction, a stain that will persist throughout his presidency unless overturned on appeal, follows the closure of two investigations federal authorities which have not yet resulted in a trial.

Special counsel Jack Smith has so far effectively dismissed two cases against the former president, and a Georgia appeals court expelled the prosecutor who presided over a sweeping criminal case against Trump and his allies.

Meanwhile, Trump has appointed several of his own criminal defense attorneys to senior positions within the Justice Department, including top secret attorneys Todd Blanche and Emile Bove.

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