Exactly what Donald Trump said in court as he dodges jail in hush money trial
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Donald Trump has been sentenced in New York but avoided jail in his hush money trial. The President-elect, 78, did not appear in court in New York City in person on Friday, but made a brief virtual appearance from his home in Palm Beach, Florida. Trump, wearing a dark suit and seated next to one of his lawyers with an American flag in the background, appeared on a video screen as he again insisted he did not commit a crime.
He made a seven-word declaration about his 34 convictions stemming from the trial, as he told Judge Juan Merchan: "I'm totally innocent. I did nothing wrong." He added: "It's been a political witch hunt. It was done to damage my reputation so that I would lose the election, and obviously, that didn't work.".
He also went on to describe the case as "a weaponisation of government" and "an embarrassment to New York." Lawyers for the President-elect are working on an appeal for the case, but until then, Trump got an unconditional discharge for 34 counts of falsifying business records by Judge Merchan at today's sentencing - despite his pleas of innocence.
"At this time I impose that sentence to cover all 34 counts," Merchan told the court, before wishing Trump god speed for his second term in office. This makes Trump, a Republican, the first person convicted of a felony to assume the presidency. The case accused Trump of falsifying his business records to hide a $130,000 (£106,230) payoff to porn actor Stormy Daniels. She was paid late in Trump's 2016 campaign to keep her from telling the public about a sexual encounter she says the two had a decade earlier. He says nothing sexual happened between them, and he contends that his political adversaries spun up a bogus prosecution to try to damage him.
