NEW YORK (AP) — A judge established on Friday that the sentencing date for President-elect Donald Trump, in the ongoing process for making payments to hide unfavorable information, will be January 10, ten days before he is sworn in for the second time in his life as the President of the United States. Nevertheless, he is not at risk of going to jail.
However, this development leaves Trump on track to become the first president of the United States to assume office having been convicted of serious crimes.
Why will Donald Trump be sentenced?
The judge Juan M. Merchan, who presided over Trump's trial, stated in a written decision that he would sentence the former and future president to what is known as unconditional discharge, in which a case is closed without time in prison, a fine, or probation. The president-elect can appear virtually for the sentencing, if he chooses to do so.
Merchan wrote that he sought to balance conflicting interests: Trump's ability to govern "unhindered" by the case, the July ruling of the federal Supreme Court on presidential immunity, the public expectation that "everyone is equal and no one is above the law," and the importance of protecting the "inviolability of a jury verdict."
"This court simply is not convinced that the first factor outweighs the others at this stage of the proceedings," wrote Merchan in an 18-page ruling.
Merchan rejected Trump's request to dismiss the verdict and dismiss the case on grounds of presidential immunity and due to his imminent return to the White House. The judge said he found "no legal impediment to sentencing" Trump and that "it was up to him" to sentence the president-elect before his inauguration on January 20th.
What was Trump's reaction to the imminent sentence?
Trump's communications director, Steven Cheung, reiterated that the case, which Trump has long said is illegitimate, should be completely dismissed.
"There should be no sentence, and President Trump will continue to fight against these farces until they are all dead," Cheung declared in a statement.
In May, Trump was found guilty of 34 charges of falsifying business records. These involved an alleged scheme to conceal a payment to the porn actress Stormy Daniels in the final weeks of Trump's first campaign in 2016. The payment was made to prevent Daniels from releasing claims that she had engaged in sexual relations with the candidate before, while he was already married. Trump says the version is false and that he did not commit any crime.
His guilty plea left him facing the possibility of a punishment ranging from a fine or probation to four years in prison.
Trump has described the verdict as the "rigged, disgraceful" result of a "witch hunt" carried out by Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg, a Democrat.
Since being elected president, special prosecutor Jack Smith has closed his two federal cases. One referred to Trump's attempts to overturn his 2020 election defeat and the other alleged that he accumulated secret documents at his Mar-a-Lago property.
A separate case of state-level electoral interference in Georgia is pending.
Trump’s lawyers argued that Smith’s decision to dismiss the federal charges against Trump meant that all criminal cases against him should immediately cease. But Merchan said he found that argument unconvincing, pointing out that the New York state case of money in exchange for silence was at a “significantly” different stage.