Appearing in court virtually from his Mar-a-Lago home Friday, President-elect Donald Trump was sentenced for his crimes in the New York “hush money” case and released with no restrictions.
Judge Juan Merchan followed a promise made a week ago to give Trump an unconditional release sentence, which includes neither a criminal sentence nor any other restrictions that could obstruct Trump after his inauguration on Jan. 20.
Merchan said Friday’s conviction that he granted this sentence because the idea that it was the only legal option, only 10 days before Trump assumed the presidency.
Merchan told the court that “this has been a truly extraordinary case,” even though once the courtroom doors closed, the trial itself had been in his estimation no more special or unique than any other.
However, he told Trump, he may not say the same of the cases surrounding the conviction of the elected president “due to the position he has occupied and will occupy soon. ” Merchan said that the legal protections granted to the president’s workplace were extraordinary, “not the occupant of the workplace. “
These legal protections were something that exceeded everyone else, Merchan said, however, they were something attenuating. He said they had reduced the severity of the crimes or erased the jury verdict.
Merchan said he made the decision that the only legal penalty he could pronounce, without invading the highest position in the country, was unconditional release.
Donald Trump, the civilian, he said, has not received such an indulgent sentence.
In the Court Chamber, Trump and the lawyer of Todd Blanche, who was also operated through the preaspeta, chosen to serve as a general subcropper, can notice through an appearance of video flow through the appearance, with two Visible American flags, in a room with dark wood walls.
Trump had the opportunity to touch the court. He described the trial as “a very horrible experience” and “a massive reverse for New York. ”
“With all the terrible things that happen, I have been accused of calling legal expenses a legal expense,” Trump said, referring to falsified refunds to a former lawyer, for a “silent” payment in the center of the case.
“It’s a political search for witches,” Trump told the camera. “My reputation was damaged to lose the elections, and obviously, it didn’t work. “
“The fact is, I’m completely innocent,” Trump said. I didn’t do anything wrong. “
Before the sentencing, prosecutor Joshua Steinglass said Trump’s moves attacking the judicial formula and prosecutors in this case “constitute a direct attack on the rule of law itself. “
“Far from expressing any kind of remorse for his criminal conduct, the defendant has purposefully bred disdain for our judicial institutions and the rule of law, and he’s done this to serve his own ends, and to encourage others to reject the jury verdict that he finds so distasteful,” Steinglass said.
“In a nutshell, this defendant has caused pain in the public’s belief of the Formula of Justice of Crook and has placed judicial officials in the dangerous way,” Steinglass said.
Blanche said he did not disagree with the Steinglass evaluation of Trump’s case and behavior. He said that it was not only Trump and Mavens through Trump who have not been mentioned, however, the majority of the American people, referring to those who voted for the Republican in November.
To each one, Trump and his lawyers have fought against Manhattan’s prosecutors since the investigation of the investigation of the “Silence Money” in 2018. They implied the tasks of the prosecutors and decisions of Merchan, fighting several times to the Supreme Court, Even an effort this week effort for the audience on Friday.
On Thursday, the Supreme Court said it would not interfere on behalf of Trump, racing the way in Merchan to make its decision. Trump, in a while after the decision of the Superior Court, said he read it and “thought it was a fair decision, in fact,” noting that the judges of the Supreme Court under the pressure that simply appeal and that there would really be “really” Estría.
“But we will continue anyway,” he added in his comments on Thursday night.
“So I will do my little thing tomorrow. They can laugh with their political opponent,” Trump said.
Although there are no cameras in the courtroom, an audio recording of the proceedings will be after the end of the hearing.
While Trump’s trial and accusation brought crowds and afternoon lines, on Friday morning, the scarce general public line and no spectator in the park on the other side of the street was visual before dawn.
Trump was found guilty in May after a seven-week trial. A unanimous jury concluded he committed 34 felonies in authorizing a scheme in 2017 to falsify records, in order to cover up reimbursements for a “hush money” payment to adult film star Stormy Daniels.
Daniels testified during the trial, as did Trump’s former lawyer and “fixer” Michael Cohen, who received the falsified reimbursements for his wire to Daniels just before the 2016 presidential election. Cohen gave Daniels the $130,000 payment in exchange for her silence about an alleged sexual encounter with Trump years earlier.
Several witnesses said Trump aloraba with the electorate had not learned the story of Daniels before the 2016 elections.
Merchan arrested Trump 10 times during the trial for violating a gag order that forbids public comments on witnesses, court personnel and others. When issuing the tenth appointment of contempt, Merchan, who has declared the exclusive cases of the trial and scored and the hard defendant: he pressed the sentence probably on Friday.
“The last thing I want to do is to put you in jail,” Merchan said.
Marchan told Trump on Friday: “The only legal sentence that makes a conviction without invading the post in the country is an unconditional release.
“Godspeed as you assume your second term in office,” Merchan said.