Donald Trump’s ‘shush money’ sentencing scheduled for January 10, but prison sentence unlikely

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Donald Trump has been ordered to appear for sentencing on January 10 in a New York criminal “money laundering” case, days before his inauguration for his second term in the White House.

Judge Juan Merchan’s decision on Friday deals a symbolic legal blow Trump and sets the stage for a courtroom spectacle in lower Manhattan just weeks before the president-elect returns to the White House. However, the judge made it clear in Friday’s order that Trump will not face prison time for the conviction, and said he can attend the sentencing hearing virtually if he chooses.

A spokesman for Trump’s transition team said the order was “in direct violation of a Supreme Court order.” decision on immunity and other long-standing court practice” and that “there should be no sentencing”.

“President Trump must be allowed to continue the presidential transition process and carry out the vital duties of the presidency, unencumbered by the remnants of this or any vestiges of the witch hunt,” Steven Cheung said. “President Trump will continue to fight these scams until they are all dead.”

The hush-money case is one of four criminal cases brought against Trump since his first term in office and the only one to go to trial. Last year, after a seven-week trial in New York state court, he was convicted of 34 crimes falsifying business documents in what prosecutors said was a scheme to buy the silence of a porn actress, Stormy Daniels, with whom he had an affair. It was the first time that the former president was convicted of a crime.

The sentencing was delayed several times as Trump returned to the presidential race, and again after he defeated Kamala Harris in the November election.

Trump’s legal team argued that the case should be thrown out following a U.S. Supreme Court ruling that found presidents are entitled to broad legal immunity for their official actions. Prosecutors, meanwhile, wanted the judge to wait to sentence Trump until after his presidency.

In his decision, Merchan said the conduct at issue in the money laundering case was not protected by presidential immunity. However, he acknowledged “that presidential immunity is likely to be achieved after the defendant is sworn in.”

Therefore, Merchan concluded, Trump should be convicted before the Jan. 20 inauguration — bringing the case to “finality” and allowing the president-elect to file further appeals.

Merchan stressed that he did not want to take the unprecedented step of ordering the jailing of the president-elect.

“While this court may not legally make any decision as to sentence before giving the parties and the accused an opportunity to be heard, it seems appropriate at this time to announce the court’s preference not to impose any sentence of imprisonment, a sentence authorized by conviction but recognized by the people that they no longer consider it a practical recommendation,” he wrote.

Instead, Merchan said he was inclined to impose a so-called unconditional discharge, which would essentially allow Trump to walk free and not face probation or a fine.

Friday’s decision was the latest twist in Trump’s various criminal justice sagas, which have largely faded since his re-election. Jack Smith, the Justice Department special counsel tasked with overseeing investigations into Trump, has already dropped two federal criminal cases — one involving alleged interference in the 2020 election and another involving classified documents found at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate – referring to the DoJ policy prohibiting the prosecution of current presidents.

A fourth case, filed in Georgia over an alleged conspiracy to interfere with the state’s 2020 election results, has been thrown into disarray after an appeals court disqualified the Fulton County district attorney who brought it.

However, Trump remains embroiled in civil litigation. He was arrested for more than $450 million after it was discovered that he inflated the value of his assets to banks to get favorable loan terms. He was also ordered in two separate cases to pay more than $88 million to author E Jean Carroll, who claimed the president-elect sexually assaulted her in the 1990s and then defamed her.

Trump appealed those civil judgments. A federal appeals court upheld one of Carroll’s convictions earlier this week.