After months of delay, President-elect Donald J. Trump on Friday became the first American president to be criminally sentenced.
He avoided jail or any other substantive punishment, but the proceeding carried symbolic importance: It formalised Trump’s status as a felon, making him the first to carry that dubious designation into the presidency.
“Never before has this court been presented with such a unique and remarkable set of circumstances,” said the judge overseeing the case, Juan M. Merchan. “This has been truly an extraordinary case.”
The judge then imposed a so-called unconditional discharge of Mr. Trump’s sentence, a rare and lenient alternative to jail or probation. Explaining the leniency, Justice Merchan acknowledged Mr. Trump’s inauguration 10 days hence.
“Donald Trump the ordinary citizen, Donald Trump the criminal defendant” would not be entitled to the protections of the presidency, Justice Merchan asserted, explaining that only the office shields him from the verdict’s gravity.
The judge then wished Trump “godspeed” and departed the bench.
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Trump appeared virtually, his scowl projected onto a screen in a chilly yet bright Lower Manhattan courtroom filled with reporters, sketch artists and courtroom personnel. He was at his Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida, seated along with one of his lawyers in front of a pair of large American flags.
“This has been a very terrible experience,” Trump said during the hearing, adding: “The fact is, I’m totally innocent.”
Asserting the primacy of the election over the verdict, he said that the voters “got to see this firsthand.”
The hearing had begun with a lead prosecutor, Joshua Steinglass, recapping the “overwhelming evidence” and saying that the prosecution had recommended that Mr. Trump receive the so-called unconditional discharge of his sentence.
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But Steinglass still blasted Trump, saying that “far from expressing any kind of remorse for his criminal conduct, the defendant has purposefully bred disdain for our institutions and the rule of law.”
Trump, he added, “has caused enduring damage to public perception of the criminal justice system and has placed officers of the court in harm’s way.”
Trump’s lawyer, Todd Blanche, said he “very much” disagreed with Mr. Steinglass. He blasted the legitimacy of the case, repeating Mr. Trump’s frequent claims that it amounted to election interference.
He said it was a “sad day” for Trump’s family — and the country.
Now that Trump has been sentenced, he can begin a formal appeal of his conviction. He cannot, however, pardon himself. Presidential pardon authority does not extend to state charges.
The sentencing stems from Trump’s conviction on charges of falsifying records to cover up a sex scandal that threatened to derail his first campaign.
Once the jury convicted Trump on all 34 felony counts in May, the former and future president fought tooth and nail to avoid the spectacle of a sentencing.
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