Donald Trump is convicted in the hush money case, but the judge does not award any jail time for him

Perhaps for the first time in the history of the United States, a president elect has been convicted of a felony and sentenced with no probation, such as reporting to an officer periodically, and waived jail time.
President elect Donald Trump has been convicted in the $130,000 hush money case allegedly paid to adult star Stormy Daniels reportedly by his counsel Michael Cohen by cooking the books, weeks before he became president in the 2016 election. Trump was held guilty of falsifying accounts and covering up the payments as legal fees.
The case is somewhat similar to the sentencing of Indian premier Indira Gandhi in misuse of official machinery to win the elections which was struck down by a judge of the Allahabad high court and she imposed emergency during which alleged atrocities by her supporters and her son Sanjay Gandhi led to unrest in the country leading to her historic defeat in 1977 elections by the people. The Janata party came to power.
But infighting and squabbles led the party to a defeat at the hustings in three years leading to re-election of Mrs Gandhi when people brushed aside the judgement and voted for her.
In Trumps case, through the year he had been dogged by litany of cases ranging from conspiracy to overturn democratic election with dubious claims , suppress voters rights, threaten court officials, post defamatory remarks against an author for which he was fined and punished for falsifying claims of his business assets to secure loans from banks at concessional rates and had his business licenses cancelled.
Yet he rose like a phoenix from the ashes and won by millions of popular votes, ripping into the vote banks of the democrats and winning all seven battleground states. He claimed people had watched the courts proceedings and believed he was a victim of witch hunt and had done nothing wrong, although witnesses and recorded testified against him.
The albatross around his neck was the hush money case where the jury found him guilty and punished him as guilty. Trump after winning the election appealed to the supreme court to pause the sentence. But the supreme court by 5-4 verdict rejected his request allowing Juan Merchan to hold him guilty as decided by the jury in his court in Washington. Four of the conservative judges led by his favourite Clarence Thomas ruled in Trump’s favour, but three liberals voted against him and two more justices including the chief justice and Amy Burnette , a conservative, tilted the vote to 5-4 voting with the liberals.

Juan Merchan had the carte blanche to find Trump guilty of the charge of falsifying his accounts to cover up the hush money. Trump till the end claimed he was a victim of witch hunt, he was innocent , and that he had no clue nor did he control the accountants who put down the hush money as legal fees, which was a felony.
Trump will be the first president to enter White House as a convicted felon and he will suffer the ignominy and embarrassment caused to him in his term and so he will appeal to the supreme court again against the case and no one has a clue as to how the winds will blow after he becomes president.
Judge Juan Merchan was very clever in his pronouncement of the verdict. He said while he was sentencing him for a felony in the case, he was allowing him to perform the functions of the presidency as he was elected to the high office by the people. It was the office of the presidency he was respecting and not the individual who had committed the crime.
Here is the full story of how the drama unfolded in one of the biggest newsbreaks of the United States.
The Sentence by Judge Juan Merchan of the Washington Court
President-elect Donald Trump has been sentenced to unconditional discharge for his conviction last year on 34 charges of business fraud related to hush money payment to Stormy Daniels during the 2016 presidential campaign.
What the sentence means: Unconditional discharge means Trump will not be imprisoned, fined or face probation, but his conviction still stands, and he will enter office as a convicted felon. Prosecutors had recommended the sentence, saying in court Friday, “we must be respectful of the office of the presidency” and Trump’s pending inauguration.
The court is now releasing audio of today’s sentencing, which was not allowed to be broadcast live by media. The audio recording will provide an opportunity to hear Donald Trump speaking as he was sentenced for his hush money conviction, meaning he will enter the presidency as a felon, but receive no penalties.
President-elect Donald Trump doesn’t have the same conditions as other convicted felons who have probationary periods, but instead has to maintain his role as president, CNN anchor Laura Coates said.
“Donald Trump right now is in a league of his own for the reasons that my colleagues have described. But an unconditional release, normally, if somebody is convicted of a crime and does not have a jail sentence imposed, a probationary period comes in,” Coates said.
Coates described responsibilities including checking in with a probation officer, engaging with drug testing and community service “in order to make sure that they don’t have the ability to be actually brought into a jail.”
“Donald Trump doesn’t have any of those conditions. The condition he now has is to maintain his role as the commander in chief and president of the United States,” Coates said.
Trump will take office on January 20.
Judge Juan Merchan has sentenced Donald Trump to unconditional discharge.

“The only lawful sentence that permits entry of a judgment or conviction without encroaching upon the highest office of the land is an unconditional discharge,” Merchan told Trump.
The sentencing, which was expected, means Trump will remain a felon but faces no jail time, penalties or probation for his conviction in the hush money case.
“Sir, I wish you godspeed as you assume your second term in office,” Merchan said in his final statement to Trump.
Trump did not react as Merchan concluded the hearing.
Judge Juan Merchan says he need not repeat the aggravating factors that he has already articulated in his recent orders. “However, the considerable, indeed extraordinary, legal protections afforded the office of the chief executive is a factor that overrides all others,” he says.
“They do not reduce the seriousness of the crime or justify its commission in any way,” Merchan says of the legal protections for the office of the presidency.
“One power they do not provide is the power to erase a jury verdict,” Merchan says.
Merchan noted that voters ultimately decided to bestow Trump the protections of the office once again. “Ordinary citizens do not receive those legal protections. It is the office of the president that bestows those to the office holder. It is the citizenry of this nation that recently decided that you should once again receive the benefits of those protections,” he says.
Office of the presidency is supreme and not the occupant of the office
Judge Juan Merchan told Donald Trump noting that it’s the office of the presidency that is extraordinary, not the occupant of the office.
“It is the legal protections afforded to the office of the president of the United States that are extraordinary, not the occupant of the office,” he said.
Merchan says that once the courtroom doors closed, the trial was not different from any other in the courthouse.
Judge Juan Merchan says, “never before has this court been presented with such a unique and remarkable set of circumstances.” “This has been a truly extraordinary case,” he adds.
President-elect Donald Trump just finished speaking in court. “Thank you Mr. Trump,” Judge Juan Merchan says. “The imposition of sentence is one of the most difficult and significant decisions that any criminal court judge is called upon to make,” Merchan adds.
Merchan says he believes that Trump needs to hear his reasoning for his sentence though he indicated his inclinations ahead of time.
Donald Trump is insisting he is innocent at his sentencing hearing this morning. “The fact is I’m totally innocent. I did nothing wrong,” he says.

Donald Trump mentioned his former lawyer, Michael Cohen, referring to past remarks.
“He was allowed to talk like he was George Washington, but he’s not George Washington,” Trump said.
Trump details his election victory
President-elect Donald Trump is now discussing his 2024 election victory, saying in court that he won the popular vote by “millions and millions of votes” and noting that he won all seven swing states. “They’ve been watching your trial, so they understood it,” Trump said of the voters.
President-elect Donald Trump said legal fees were not put down by him, but by his accountants. “Legal fees were put down as legal expenses by accountants; they weren’t put down by me. They didn’t call them construction, concrete work,” Trump said. “They called a legal expense a legal expense and for this I got indicted. It’s incredible actually. “
“It’s been a political witch hunt, it was done to damage my reputation,” President-elect Donald Trump says.
Donald Trump is going after the indictment and the charges of falsifying business records — after he chose not to testify at the trial.
President-elect Donald Trump begins his statement at today’s sentencing hearing, saying “this has been a very terrible experience.” “I think it’s been a setback for New York and the New York court system. This is a case that Alvin Bragg did not want to bring.”
Trump attorney Todd Blanche says it’s a “sad day” for the US. “It’s a very sad day. It’s a sad day for President Trump, for his family and friends, but also in counsel’s view, a sad day for this country,” he says.
Trump’s lawyers plan to appeal verdict.
Todd Blanche, an attorney for President-elect Donald Trump, says the legal team intends to appeal the verdict. “A lot of what the government just said presupposes that this case is legally appropriate,” Blanche said following prosecutor Joshua Steinglass’s comments in court. Blanche noted that Trump’s lawyers intend to appeal the verdict.
“A majority of the American people also agree that this case should not have been brought,” Blanche added.
Donald Trump’s attorney Todd Blanche is now arguing for the president-elect, saying he disagrees with prosecutors.
“I very, very much disagree with much of what the government just said about this case, about the legitimacy of what happened in this courtroom during the trial, and about President Trump’s conduct fighting this case,” Blanche says.
Trump is looking forward while Blanche speaks next to him, not reacting to what his attorney — and pick for deputy attorney general — is saying to the judge.
The probation officer who interviewed President-elect Donald Trump for the probation report wrote that Trump believed he was “above the law,” prosecutor Joshua Steinglass says.
“We must be respectful of the office of the presidency,” prosecutor says of Trump’s conduct
Prosecutor Joshua Steinglass acknowledges that any other conditional discharge — meaning one with jail time, a fine or other penalty — has the potential to interfere with Trump’s obligations to the office of the presidency.
Steinglass went on to say that a sentence of unconditional discharge preserves Trump’s status as a convicted felon while he pursues his appeals and, “It gives full effect and respect of the verdict while preserving the defendant’s ability to govern.”
Prosecutor Joshua Steinglass points to Judge Juan Merchan’s previous comments that Trump’s conduct “constitutes a direct attack on the rule of law itself.”
“This defendant has caused enduring damage to the public perception of the criminal justice system,” Steinglass says.
Prosecutor Joshua Steinglass tells the court that Trump has been “far from expressing any kind of remorse for his criminal conduct” and “encouraged others to reject the jury verdict.”
“He’s been unrelenting in his unsubstantiated attacks” on the court, prosecutors, and the jury, Steinglass says of Trump.
Prosecutor Joshua Steinglass is now listing off things he says President-elect Trump has done post-verdict to undermine the jury’s verdict.
As Steinglass started criticizing Trump, the president-elect leaned back in his chair and folded his arms, shaking his head side to side.
Recommended by Prosecutor Joshua Steinglass recapped the case briefly and said, “The jury’s verdict in this case was unanimous and decisive and it must be respected.”

He noted that the felonies Trump was convicted of could come with a prison sentence or other punishments without jail time.
Prosecutor Joshua Steinglass says they are recommending a sentence of unconditional discharge. “Your honour indicated an inclination to impose an unconditional discharge under all the circumstances of this case, this unique posture and the defendant’s status as president elect, the people recommend a sentence of unconditional discharge,” he said.
Judge: “Let’s impose sentence, please”
“Let’s impose sentence, please,” Judge Juan Merchan says.