Trump to be sentenced in hush money case, days before inauguration

Justice Juan Merchan, who oversaw the six-week trial in 2024, had signaled that he does not plan to send Mr Trump to jail or to fine him.

The United States President-elect, Donald Trump, is scheduled to be sentenced on Friday for his criminal conviction, stemming from hush money paid to a porn star.

This case earlier overshadowed his bid to retake the White House.

The US Supreme Court paved the way on Thursday for the 9:30 a.m. ET (1430 GMT) sentencing in New York state court in Manhattan, rejecting a last-minute request by Mr Trump to halt it 10 days before his 20 January inauguration.

Justice Juan Merchan, who oversaw the six-week trial in 2024, had signaled that he does not plan to send Mr Trump to jail or to fine him.

However, by granting an unconditional discharge, he would place a judgment of guilt on Mr Trump’s permanent record.

Mr Trump, 78, who pleaded not guilty, was expected to appear virtually at the hearing.

He fought tooth and nail to avoid the spectacle of being compelled to appear before a state-level judge, days before returning to the public office.

Cheryl Bader, a law professor at Fordham University in New York, said “he doesn’t want to be sentenced because that is the official judgment of him being a convicted felon.”

The trial played out against the extraordinary backdrop of Mr Trump’s successful campaign to retake the White House.

The sentencing marks the culmination of the first-ever criminal case brought against a US president, past or present.

Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg charged Mr Trump in March 2023 with 34 counts of falsifying business records to cover up his former lawyer Michael Cohen’s $130,000 payment to adult film star Stormy Daniels for her silence before the 2016 election about a sexual encounter she said she had with Mr Trump, who denied it.

Mr Trump defeated Democrat Hillary Clinton in that election.

The Manhattan jury found Mr Trump guilty of all 34 counts on May 30.

Prosecutors argued that despite the tawdry nature of the allegations, the case was an attempt to corrupt the 2016 election.

Critics of the businessman-turned-politician cited the charges and other legal entanglements he faced to bolster their contention that he was unfit for public office.

Mr Trump argued that the case, along with three other criminal indictments and civil lawsuits accusing him of fraud, defamation and sexual abuse, was an effort by opponents to weaponise the justice system against him and harm his reelection campaign.

He frequently lashed out at prosecutors and witnesses, and Judge Merchan ultimately fined Mr Trump $10,000 for violating a gag order.

In a decision that day, Mr Merchan said that setting aside the verdict would “undermine the Rule of Law in immeasurable ways” and wrote that Mr Trump’s behaviour during the trial showed disrespect for the judiciary.

“Defendant has gone to great lengths to broadcast on social media and other forums his lack of respect for judges, juries, grand juries and the justice system as a whole,” Mr Merchan said.

On Thursday, hours before the sentence was to be imposed, Mr Trump wrote on his social media platform that he would be appealing the case and was confident that he would prevail.

The hush money case was widely viewed as less serious than the three other criminal cases Mr Trump faced, in which he was accused of trying to overturn his 2020 election loss and retaining classified documents after leaving the White House. Mr Trump pleaded not guilty in all the cases.

However, the Bragg’s case was the only criminal case to reach trial in the face of an onslaught of challenges from Mr Trump’s lawyers.

After Mr Trump’s 5 November election victory, federal prosecutors backed off their two cases due to Justice Department policy against prosecuting a sitting president.

The remaining state case, brought in Georgia over efforts to reverse the 2020 election results in that state, is in limbo after a court in December disqualified the lead prosecutor on the case.

The hush money case was a mixed bag politically.

Contributions to Mr Trump’s campaign surged after his indictment in March 2023, likely helping him defeat his rivals for the Republican nomination.

During the trial, polling showed a majority of voters took the charges seriously, and his standing among Republicans slipped after the guilty verdict.

(Reuters/NAN)