Trump Is Sentenced In New York Hush Money Case

Donald Trump is, officially, a convicted felon.


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539 points

No, he’s not going to jail. But yes, Donald Trump is now, officially, a convicted felon, and will officially enter office with that status.

Trump was convicted last spring on all 34 counts in the New York case involving falsified business records and hush money payments to Stormy Daniels. None of Trump’s other criminal cases ever progressed past the indictment phase, but the New York case proceeded to the verdict.

And while Trump’s election to the presidency made fairly clear that he would not go to prison, the former and future president on Friday was sentenced in that case. Per CNN, Trump has been sentenced to unconditional discharge in the case. He will not be “imprisoned, fined or face probation,” but the case has not been dismissed, and the conviction still stands. This means that Trump will enter office as president as a convicted felon, a first in American history.

Judge Juan Mercan said from the bench that Trump’s election to the presidency “do not reduce the seriousness of the crime or justify its commission in any way,” adding that “one power they do not provide is the power to erase a jury verdict.”

Earlier this, the U.S. Supreme Court turned down Trump’s request to halt the New York sentencing, in a 5-4 decison in which Chief Justice John Roberts and Justice Amy Comey Barrett joined the liberals in siding against Trump.

Soon after the decision, Trump posted to Truth Social about the decision, calling it “another pathetic, unAmerican Witch Hunt.”

“THERE IS NO CASE, THERE WAS NEVER A CASE, and this whole Scam fully deserves to be DISMISSED,” Trump said. “The real Jury, the American People, have spoken, by Re-Electing me with an overwhelming MANDATE in one of the most consequential Elections in History. As the American People have seen, this “case” had no crime, no damages, no proof, no facts, no Law, only a highly conflicted Judge, a star witness who is a disbarred, disgraced, serial perjurer, and criminal Election Interference.”

Photo courtesy of the Political Tribune media library. 

 



Stephen Silver
Stephen Silver is an award-winning journalist, essayist and film critic, and contributor to the Philadelphia Inquirer, the Jewish Telegraphic Agency, Broad Street Review and Splice Today. The co-founder of the Philadelphia Film Critics Circle, Stephen lives in suburban Philadelphia with his wife and two sons. Stephen has authored thousands of articles that focus on politics, technology, and the economy.

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