A judge sentenced Donald Trump to an unconditional discharge Friday for covering up hush money payments to a porn star despite the U.S. president-elect's last-ditch efforts to avoid becoming the first felon in the White House.
New York judge Juan Merchan handed down no jail time or fine, but the discharge upholds the jury's guilty verdict -- and confirmed Trump's infamy as the first former president convicted of a felony.
The 34 counts of falsifying business records on which Trump was convicted in May 2024 carried potential jail time.
"Never before has this court been presented with such a unique and remarkable set of circumstances," said Merchan. "The only lawful sentence that permits entry of a judgment of conviction without encroaching on the highest office of the land is an unconditional discharge."
Trump attended his sentencing virtually, with the judge, lawyers and media packed into the scruffy Manhattan courtroom that was the backdrop to the trial's high drama, legal wrangling and vitriolic personal attacks by the divisive Republican.
"This has been a very terrible experience. I think it's been a tremendous setback for New York and the New York court system," Trump said in a rambling rant before the discharge was passed. "It was done to damage my reputation, so I would lose the election -- obviously that didn't work."
The former president appeared on screens in the courtroom with two large U.S. flags behind him, wearing a red tie with white stripes and looking on impatiently as the brief proceeding unfolded.
Ahead of the sentencing, prosecutor Joshua Steinglass said Trump had been convicted of a "premeditated and continuous deception."
"The verdict in this case was unanimous and decisive and it must be respected," he said.
The trial saw Trump forced to look on as a string of witnesses testified that he had fraudulently covered up illicit payments to porn star Stormy Daniels in an effort to stop her disclosing their tryst ahead of the 2016 presidential election, which he ultimately won.
Trump had sought a suspension of the criminal proceedings after a New York State appeals court dismissed his effort to have the hearing delayed.
But the Supreme Court ruled that the sentencing could proceed.
Prosecutors opposed the effort to stave off sentencing, 10 days before Trump is due to be sworn in for a second term, arguing it was wrong for the high court to hear the case when the mogul still had avenues of appeal to pursue in New York.
An unconditional discharge is a measure without any sanctions or restriction that nonetheless upholds the jury's guilty verdict -- and Trump's infamy as the first former president to be convicted of a felony.
The 78-year-old Trump had potentially faced up to four years in prison.
"He's sticking his middle finger at the judge, the jury, the system of justice, and laughing," said Pace University law professor and former prosecutor Bennett Gershman ahead of the sentencing.
Outside the courthouse, Trump supporters held a giant banner emblazoned with his name that was buffeted by high winds. There was also a small vigil of anti-Trump demonstrators behind a hoarding reading "Trump is guilty."
Trump's counsel had argued sentencing should have been postponed while the Republican appealed his conviction, but New York state Associate Justice Ellen Gesmer rejected that on Tuesday.
Trump repeatedly called the prosecution a "witch hunt" which Steinglass said was "designed to have a chilling effect" on the legal cases against him.
"This defendant has caused enduring damage to public perception of the criminal justice system," the career prosecutor said.
Trump's lawyer Todd Blanche rejected that.
"I very, very much disagree with much of what the (prosecution) just said," he said.
At the end of the verdict reading judge Merchan wished Trump "god speed as you assume your second term in office."
Trump was certified as the winner of the 2024 presidential election on Monday, four years after his supporters rioted at the U.S. Capitol as he sought to overturn his 2020 defeat.
© 2025 AFP
39 Comments
TaiwanIsNotChina
Would have been nice to fine him at least $1, but maybe this will keep his criminal record up longer.
ok1517
Only a slap on the wrist?
"Unconditional discharge", what t.f. ist that?
This is disgusting, unbelievable!
Others do time for smaller offenses!
Guess that judge Merchan is also on Donald's paylist.
Interesting this here, too:
"A third of defendants since 2014 sentenced to the most serious charge of falsifying business records in the first in Manhattan were handed less than a year of jail time. Others received more than a year of incarceration or were handed probation, fines, community service, or conditional discharges. But no other defendants in the cases reviewed byThe Times got an unconditional discharge."
At least he will be known as "Convicted Felon President"!
Underworld
Trump is furious. He went running to his toadies in the Supreme Court but ACB did the right thing and voted not to have sentencing proceed.
The only president to be a convicted felon.
Underworld
*to have sentencing proceed
Ah_so
I agree with the sentence. I don't think that an a vulnerable old man with mental issues should be sent to prison.
リッチ
He should have been fined at lease the costs of brining him to trial as well as the penalty of what he did wrong. The rich in America have a different set of rules.
ok1517
Ah_so,
if Donald is a "vulnerable old man with mental issues" (borderline personality disorder, megalomania, and others) there are other "institutions" than prison to help and take care of him! Just sayin'!
Tokyo Guy
The decision comes as no surprise, and really just cements the fact that the US system of justice is skewed towards the rich, white, and famous. A few observations:
I foresee Merrick Garland on the Supreme Court next time there is a vacancy. Trump should be sending him a personally written thank you note.
One article I read put some of the blame on Biden for appointing Garland. Logically this tracks, but I wonder if Biden had any idea how feckless Garland would end up being.
Jack Smith was the right man with the wrong boss. Smith will come out of this with his reputation intact - even improved, I'd argue - but he is one of the few who will come out of this whole thing looking good.
Americans will now be divided sharply into two groups: those who are gobsmacked by the fact that a criminal will be president, and those who are proud of the fact.
spinningplates
It's fine; it's the American dream! Even Felons can dream of being President!
lincolnman
Another embarrassing, humiliating loss for the Loser from Mar-A-Lago...
He's a convicted felon - just like John Gotti, Al Capone, and Ted Bundy....and half his cabinet...
Should he have gone to prison? Probably - but he's already confined - he's a prisoner inside his own demented, Alzheimer's-addled mind...
bass4funk
What?
Keep dreaming, he should retire it or go into the private sector.
ROFL!
How?
That’s what the left thought.
Huh? To the Dems perhaps, the rest of the nation, no.
And that don’t care which would be about half the country, he will appeal and this is good news, he’ll get this expunged from his record soon enough.
They can be proud because at the end of the day, that’s all they will have and nothing more. In 10 days Garland will be a flickering memory who’s final spark blew off into the blowing wind.
Bob Fosse
He’s lost some of his rights.
No gun, no liquor license, has to submit dna sample.
You know, like felons do.
He’ll be sworn in as a criminal and fittingly with flags at half mast.
bass4funk
No biggie, nothing that can impede on his presidency, he’ll appeal and he’ll win that as well in the end.
He doesn’t need a gun, he has SS and private security that have them and he doesn’t drink, and he gives a DNA sample…ok.. fine. Lol
Yes, and? Still President, but anyway, glad and proud to have voted for the felon.
Whatever, it means nothing and the Dems still lost in the end. ROFL!
Eat the left
Enjoy your little 'victory', orange-man-bad folk. No one except you cares. He's there to put the country back on its feet, however much the guileless try to destroy him. He's just the strong leader needed.
Bob Fosse
Until they win again. You know there’s another election in 4 years right? It’s an endless game of musical chairs.
It keeps the small minded excited about ‘winning’ something and not having to think too much. What do you think he is going to achieve in 4 years?
Diddly squat is what.
Tokyo Guy
glad and proud to have voted for the felon.
No notes, as the saying goes.
Norm
Doesn’t anybody remember that this was a state-level case? Garland had no role in this.
Easier to comment on the news than to read it.
GuruMick
The new "Teflon Don "
The old one was a "legitimate business man " too.
Underworld
Eat the left
Oh, Donald cares. Donald cares a lot.
Fat chance.
Nobody tried to destroy him.
He's not a strong leader. He's not even a leader - he only cares about himself.
wallace
Trump isn't a forever, he's a four-year term. Only the second Republican president this century.
theFu
How is that punishment for criminal activity? I'm dissatisfied with the sentence.
We are seeing far too many businesses change policies to make Trump NOT look there way. Shameful. If it was good business for the last 10 yrs, what made it not good business this week?
Peter Neil
those darn juries keep convicting him unanimously. over and over.
Blacklabel
Nobody cares, looking to the future in 9 days. Will be overturned on appeal later not that it really matters.
this was just to influence an election and it failed.
Underworld
Blacklabel
It was nothing of the sort.
R B Quinn
The former Insurrectionist-in-Chief is also a convicted felon.
Millions of his followers still believe the disinformation and misinformation he continues to spew, to the detriment of democracy, and the way of life in the United States of America.
bass4funk
The Dems lost
-The Presidency
-The House
-The Senate
I would beg to differ.
Blacklabel
oh but it clearly was nothing.
based on the sentence of “nothing”.
the punishment finally fits the “crime”: nothing.
stormcrow
Nothing like being above the law, is there, Donald?
Blacklabel
A trial that results in a non custodial sentence should have never been a trial to begin with, that’s the point.
a “crime” with no punishment isn’t a crime.
Blacklabel
so now that sentencing is done, what has changed?
“we can call him a convicted felon!”
ok. (A) you already have been calling him that before today and (b) so? Does it really mean it change anything that is ahead?
u_s__reamer
...put some of the blame on Biden for appointing Garland. Logically this tracks, but I wonder if Biden had any idea how feckless Garland would end up being.
It would be very naive to believe that Biden and Garland were not in cahoots in not rushing to prosecute and jail a US president by waiting 2 years before taking action then delaying further by appointing a special counsel and letting the clock run out on justice all the while very aware that Trump's long game of dodging the law with his money and status and using his acquired power over the Republicans and the political establishment in Congress and Senate (not a few of whom were co-conspirators but treated by the DOJ as "untouchable") would end up letting him and the ruling duopoly escape all accountability. Scotus then put the cherry on this laughable travesty of justice by sealing the deal and conferring immunity on Trump thus adding one more tier to the 2-tier "best justice system that money can buy". Judge Merchan's hands were tied by politics and so the sentencing ended in a damp squib. These 4 years of the Trump circus have made the US into the world's laughing-stock but also opened the eyes of millions of Americans who can still distinguish accountability from immunity. That Americans now know "some are more equal than others" may be Trump's greatest service to the nation, worthy to serve as his epitaph and replace "EQUAL JUSTICE UNDER LAW engraved in marble on the West pediment of the USSC.
Nifty
So I just read that felons cannot fly to Japan, the UK, and about 30 other countries. Will foreign leaders be able to keep a straight face while courteously explaining this rule?
JJE
Trump prevails again.
Norm
Well, Trump is officially a convicted felon, for one. Forever.
What hasn’t changed is that people will eternally comment asterisks and caveats, as if they had any meaning.
Underworld
Blacklabel
Donald certainly cares.
Nope. The only reason that the sentence is non custodial is because the criminal is to be the president.
Oh, yes it is.
plasticmonkey
Note to self:
First the judge imposes a sentence. Then the judge or jury deliberates and makes a verdict. Finally, the case is brought to trial.
bass4funk
That will be overturned
It really doesn’t mean anything unless the guy is in prison, that’s not going to happen since he’s getting ready to take over for Joe.
Blacklabel
there’s no appeal?
I believe there is.
plasticmonkey
Everything's cool and good as long as you can get away with it.