Will the president-elect serve prison time? What you need to know – NBC New York

President-elect Donald Trump is expected to be sentenced in his secret trial on Jan. 10, after the judge in the case issued a surprise written ruling Friday.

But does Trump risk a prison sentence, or even any sanction, following this conviction? Here's what we know so far.

Team Trump wanted the judge to throw out the criminal case involving Stormy Daniels and Hush Money, seeking to overturn the verdict on grounds of presidential immunity and because of his impending return to the White House.

But Judge Juan M. Merchan, who presided over the trial, instead denied the motions, saying he found “no legal impediment to conviction” of Trump. The judge wrote that it was “the burden” of the court to do so before Inauguration Day.

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

The judge scheduled the sentencing to take place just 10 days before the inauguration, leaving Trump on track to become the first president to take office convicted of criminal crimes.

Merchan said in his ruling that Trump was not required to appear in person. He can attend the sentencing virtually, if he wishes.

Does Trump face prison time?

Judge Merchan wrote that he would not order the president-elect's incarceration. He said it seemed appropriate to make it known in advance that prison sentences would not be considered.

Prison was a sentence he could have imposed in the case, with Trump convicted of 34 crimes, but he said even prosecutors admitted that prison no longer seemed practical for a president-elect. 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 grant him the same type of immunity afforded to a sitting president and does not require the verdict to be overturned and the case dismissed — a notion that the judge described as drastic and rare.

Doing so 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.

The judge said in his written ruling Friday that the most viable solution appeared to be an unconditional release.

What is “unconditional release”?

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 called an unconditional discharge.

What does this imply? In short, this means the case is dismissed if a defendant avoids re-arrest, meaning no sanctions will be imposed. This includes any potential jail time, fines, or probation.

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 protecting the sanctity of the jury's 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.

In refusing to dismiss the case, Merchan pointed out that Trump was convicted of 34 counts of falsifying business records by a unanimous jury, a fundamental principle, he said, in our country's justice system.

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.

The charges stemmed from an alleged scheme to hide the payment 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 publishing claims that 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 is set to take office on Jan. 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.

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