A judge on Friday scheduled President-elect Donald Trump's sentencing for his hush money case on January 10, just over a week before his return to the White House. However, the judge indicated that Trump would not be sent to jail.
This development still puts Trump on track to become the first president to take office while convicted of felony crimes.
Judge Juan M. Merchan, who oversaw Trump’s trial, signaled in a written decision that Trump would likely receive a conditional discharge. This means the case could be dismissed if Trump avoids being rearrested. Merchan also rejected Trump’s request to have the verdict dismissed on the grounds of presidential immunity and his impending return to office. The judge emphasized that there was no legal barrier to sentencing Trump and that it was his duty to sentence Trump before the inauguration on January 20.
“Only by bringing finality to this matter will the interests of justice be served,” Merchan wrote.
Trump was convicted in May on 34 counts of falsifying business records. These charges related to an alleged scheme to hide a hush money payment to adult film actress Stormy Daniels in the final weeks of Trump’s first campaign in 2016. The payment was made to prevent Daniels from disclosing claims that she had an affair with the married Trump years earlier, which Trump denies. He claims her story is false and that he did nothing wrong.
After Trump’s election on November 5, Judge Merchan halted the proceedings and postponed the sentencing indefinitely so both the defense and prosecution could weigh in on how to proceed with the case.
Trump’s attorneys argued for the case to be dismissed, asserting it would create unconstitutional “disruptions” to the incoming president’s ability to govern. Prosecutors acknowledged that some accommodations might be necessary due to his presidency but insisted the conviction should stand. They suggested various alternatives, such as pausing the case during his presidency or ensuring he wouldn’t be jailed, or even closing the case while noting both his conviction and pending appeal—a unique suggestion drawn from procedures in some state courts when defendants die during appeals.
Trump is set to take office on January 20 as the first former president to be convicted of a crime and the first convicted criminal to be elected to the presidency.
His conviction left the 78-year-old facing a range of possible penalties, including a fine, probation, or up to four years in prison.
The case revolved around how Trump accounted for reimbursing his lawyer, Michael Cohen, for the payment to Daniels. Cohen had initially made the payment and later received reimbursement through a series of payments logged as legal expenses by Trump’s company. Trump, by then president, signed most of the checks himself.
Prosecutors argued that the payments were falsely recorded to conceal their true purpose and to cover up efforts to suppress damaging information about Trump during his first campaign. Trump, on the other hand, claimed the payments were legitimate legal expenses and that the suppression of Daniels' story was done to protect his family, not to influence the election.
Trump was a private citizen when Cohen made the payment in October 2016, but he was president when the reimbursement occurred, and Cohen testified that they discussed the repayment arrangement in the Oval Office.
Trump has described the verdict as the outcome of a “rigged, disgraceful” “witch hunt” led by Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg, a Democrat.
Before Trump’s election, his legal team had sought to reverse his conviction based on a U.S. Supreme Court decision in July that granted presidents broad immunity from criminal prosecution. That request remained pending when the election raised new concerns.
Trump’s lawyers also attempted to move the case to federal court, where they could argue for immunity, but a federal judge rejected this request. Trump has appealed this decision.
The hush money case was the only one of Trump’s four criminal indictments to go to trial.
