The announcement solidifies Mr. Trump’s conviction before he returns to power, while allowing him to return to the White House without the threat of prison time or a fine.
Donald Trump’s unconditional release caps a norm-shattering case that saw the former and future president charged with 34 crimes, tried for nearly two months and convicted by jury on each count .
Yet that court case — and the sordid details aired in court about a plot to bury the affair allegations — did not endear him to voters, who elected him to a second term.
Manhattan Judge Juan M. Merchan could have sentenced the 78-year-old Republican to up to four years in prison. Instead, he chose a sentence that skirted thorny constitutional questions in ending the case but ensured that Mr. Trump would become the first person convicted of a crime to assume the presidency.
Judge Merchan said that, as when facing any other defendant, he must consider aggravating factors before imposing a sentence, but the legal protection Mr. Trump will enjoy as president ” is a factor that takes precedence over all others.
“Despite the extraordinary breadth of these legal protections, one power they do not provide is that they do not erase the jury verdict,” he added.
Donald Trump, briefly addressing the court as he appeared virtually from his home in Florida, said his criminal trial and conviction had “been a very terrible experience” and insisted he had no committed no crime.
The former Republican president, appearing ten days before his inauguration, again denounced the case, the only one of his four criminal charges to have been tried and perhaps the only one that one day will be.
“It’s a political witch hunt. It was done to damage my reputation so that I would lose the election, and obviously it didn’t work,” Mr. Trump said.
2025-01-10 15:25:00