“Freedom without charges.” Donald Trump has not been able to avoid being sentenced for criminal offenses before reaching the White House. Ten days before the inauguration, the Republican had to listen to how Judge Juan Merchan read the sentence for the 34 crimes for which he was found guilty in the Stormy Daniels case in May. Trump makes history again as the first president to be sentenced in a criminal case. The sentence does not provide for a fine or jail time, but it does consolidate his convicted status.
US President-elect Donald Trump appeared remotely at the sentencing hearing for his criminal conviction.
Although a popular jury in New York found him guilty last May, in the eyes of the law, his status as a criminal was not formalized until the reading of the sentence, which occurred this Friday. Merchan already announced last week that he would not send him to prison or impose a large fine. In the document that he made public, he expressed that he was leaning towards an unconditional exemption from the sentence, which means that for practical purposes the Republican would not face any material consequences for his crimes.
The consolidation of his status as a convict so few days before the inauguration is a hard symbolic blow for Trump, who after winning the elections hoped to get rid of all his criminal cases. And he almost succeeded.
The two federal cases, led by special prosecutor Jack Smith, were dismissed in the hope of being able to reopen them once Trump ends his term and no longer enjoys the protection of the office, at 82 years old. The Georgia state case remains frozen, and cannot be reactivated while Trump sits in the Oval Office.
The tycoon’s legal team had presented an emergency appeal to the Supreme Court this Wednesday asking it to stop the publication of the ruling. The lawyers were clinging to the ruling on presidential immunity that the high court issued in June since they considered that publishing the ruling now would interfere with the presidential transition and the January 20 inauguration.
The conservative majority of the Supreme Court supported by Trump during his first term suggested that there was a chance that it would obtain a more favorable response for the president-elect, but late on Thursday the Supreme Court ruled that it would not accept the request.
The reading of the sentence also represents a significant victory for Manhattan District Attorney Alvin L. Bragg, who fought to ensure that the tactic orchestrated by Trump’s lawyers to delay the judicial process did not take effect.
Trump was found guilty of falsifying documents related to the payment of $130,000 to porn actress Stormy Daniels. With this he wanted to hide the sexual relationship he had with her to avoid a scandal that would harm his candidacy in the 2016 elections.
In New York, document falsification is punishable by up to four years in prison, although in the case of Trump, who had no criminal record, prison time was unlikely.
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