Judge sets date for Trump hush-money sentencing but rules out prison term
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President-elect will be sentenced for his 34 felony convictions on 10 January, Judge Juan Merchan rules. A judge on Friday set President-elect Donald Trump’s sentencing in his hush-money case for 10 January – little over a week before he is due to return to the White House – but promised not to jail him.
Judge Juan Merchan, who presided over Trump’s trial in New York, signaled in a written decision that he would sentence the former and future president to what is known as a conditional discharge, in which a case gets dismissed if a defendant avoids rearrest.
The development marks yet another twist in the singular case. Trump was convicted in May of 34 counts of falsifying business records. They involved an alleged scheme to hide a hush money payment to the porn actor Stormy Daniels in the last weeks of Trump’s first campaign in 2016. The payout was made to keep her from publicizing claims she had had sex with the married Trump years earlier. He says that her story is false and that he did nothing wrong.
After Trump’s 5 November election, Merchan halted proceedings and indefinitely postponed the sentencing so the defense and prosecution could weigh in on the future of the case. Trump’s lawyers urged Merchan to toss it. They said it would otherwise pose unconstitutional “disruptions” to the incoming president’s ability to run the country.
