Trump sentenced in hush money case but avoids jail time or fines

NEWS WIRES

January 9, 2025 at 9:40 p.m.·1 min read

US President-elect Donald Trump appears remotely for his sentencing hearing at Manhattan Criminal Court on January 10, 2025.

US President-elect Donald Trump was formally sentenced on Friday for his criminal conviction for hush money paid to a porn star but the judge declined to impose any punishment. Trump received the mildest criminal sanction available, an unconditional discharge, allowing him to return to the White House unencumbered by the threat of a jail term or a fine.

President-elect Donald Trump was sentenced Friday in his hush money case, but the judge declined to impose any punishment, an outcome that cements his conviction while freeing him to return to the White House unencumbered by the threat of a jail term or a fine.

The punishment-free judgment marks a quiet end to an extraordinary case that for the first time put a former president and major presidential candidate in a courtroom as a criminal defendant. The case was the only one of four criminal indictments that has gone to trial and possibly the only one that ever will.

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 sidestepped thorny constitutional issues by effectively ending the case but assured that Trump will become the first person convicted of a felony to assume the presidency.

Unlike his trial last year, when Trump brought allies to the courthouse and addressed waiting reporters outside, the former president did not appear in person Friday, instead making a brief virtual appearance from his home in Palm Beach, Florida.

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