President-elect Donald Trump was sentenced to an unconditional discharge with no penalty in the financial document fraud case against him after the U.S. Supreme Court decided Thursday not to step in to block Friday's sentencing hearing.
"After careful analysis, this court determined that the only lawful sentence that permits entry of judgment of conviction is an unconditional discharge," Merchan said Friday. "At this time, I impose that sentence to cover all 34 counts."
Merchan had signaled that he did not plan to impose any jail time on Trump, which factored into the Supreme Court's decision. The discharge means he will also not have any probationary period or requirements.
Trump said the Supreme Court decision was a "fair" one.
The vote was 5-4, with Chief Justice John Roberts and Justice Amy Coney Barrett voting with the three liberals on the court.
The sentence makes him officially a convicted felon. Merchan said that his status as incoming president was the reason for the discharge and wished Trump "Godspeed" in his second term in office.
Trump addressed the court before the sentencing, once again saying that the trial was a "witch hunt" and should never have happened.
His lawyers said he will still appeal the conviction, and the discharge preserves the right for him to do so.
Despite the lack of punishment, having 34 felonies on his record is still a black mark that he doesn't want or feel he deserves.
Having a prior criminal record could make any further convictions more serious for him and lead to harsher sentences.
Trump is set to take office on January 20 as the first convicted felon ever to do so, but the charges were without a doubt politically motivated as he said.
In one of the great ironies of the last two years, the criminal indictments against Trump actually helped him in the polls and may have played a major part in the success of his candidacy.
Supporters and some objective observers felt that he was being railroaded and that prosecutors were attempting to prevent his re-election, and those views made his support stronger.
It was good to see such tactics by Democrats fail, and gives great hope for our democracy going forward.
