Trump sentenced in New York hush-money case days before taking office

Donald Trump is the first former US president to receive a criminal sentence.

However, the president-elect’s conviction for falsifying business records in connection with hush-money payments made to an adult film actress was avoided by penalties.

Trump’s legal team made an unsuccessful attempt to delay the sentencing, which occurred before the Republican leader’s inauguration on January 20. On Friday, Judge Juan Merchan issued an “unconditional discharge” sentence.

Trump will no longer be required to go into the White House, but his conviction will appear on his permanent record. As a result, he won’t have to pay a fine or go on probation.

Trump, who previously served as president from 2017 to 2021, was found guilty in late May on 34 counts of falsifying business documents related to a $130, 000 payment made to Stormy Daniels, among other things.

The US president-elect has denied any wrongdoing and said he plans to appeal his conviction.

Appearing virtually at Friday’s sentencing hearing, Trump said his criminal trial and conviction had “been a very terrible experience” and insisted he committed no crime.

“It’s been a political witch-hunt”, Trump said before the judge issued his decision. It was done to “damage my reputation,” which is what I’m supposed to lose, and it obviously didn’t work.”

The hush-money payments, according to the New York case’s prosecution, were intended to cover up claims that Daniels had a sexual relationship that might have been politically incorrect.

The payments were made in advance of Trump’s victory in the 2016 US presidential election, which Democrat Hillary Clinton won.

Trump, who pleaded not guilty in the case, has denied any sexual relationship took place.

Reporting from Washington, DC, on Friday morning, Al Jazeera’s Alan Fisher said prosecutors had argued “it was important that Donald Trump was held responsible”.

According to Fisher, the judge himself acknowledged that this case was special and challenging, but ultimately he decided that the sentence should be an unconditional discharge.

A court may sentence a defendant to an unconditional discharge under New York’s penal code if it finds that “no proper purpose would be served by imposing any conditions upon the defendant’s release.”

Earlier this week, Trump’s lawyers had asked the Supreme Court to delay the sentencing&nbsp, “to prevent grave injustice and harm to the institution of the Presidency and the operations of the federal government”.

According to them, a top court ruling from last year meant that some of the evidence in the case should not have been presented because of it.

However, the majority of the Supreme Court justices stated in a decision late on Thursday that the “alleged evidentiary violations” at Trump’s state-court trial “can be addressed in the ordinary course of appeal.”

In light of the trial court’s stated intention to impose a sentence of “unconditional discharge” following a brief virtual hearing, they added, “the burden that sentencing will impose” on Trump’s responsibilities is comparatively insignificant.”

Now that he has been sentenced, Trump is free to pursue the appeal, a process that could take years and play out while he is serving his second four-year term as president.