President-elect Trump was spared any punishment for his hush money criminal conviction Friday when a New York judge sentenced him to an unconditional discharge, eschewing jail time while securing his status as the first person convicted of a felony to assume the presidency.
Judge Juan Merchan’s decision to release Trump with no strings attached caps the first and only criminal trial of a former president, less than two weeks before he’s set to return to the White House.
Of course, the most important consequence of the sentencing to leftists is that they can tag Trump with the "convicted felon" canard as he takes office. My RedState colleague Susie Moore tells us that the sentence means "no jail time or other punishment, save the 'convicted felon' tag."
The Hill reports that "Merchan signaled no punishment was the 'most viable solution' given Trump’s immunity from criminal prosecution during his upcoming White House term" — in other words, Merchan had to hit him with something since nobody could touch him after the inauguration. Trump fought to delay the sentencing but to no avail.
Yesterday, my friend and colleague Sarah Anderson reported on the Supreme Court's refusal to grant a delay. It was a tight decision, 5-4, and Trump remarked that "I read it, and I thought it was a fair decision, actually. So I’ll do my little thing tomorrow. They can have fun with their political opponent."
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Trump posted on Truth Social:
The Radical Democrats have lost another pathetic, unAmerican Witch Hunt. After spending tens of millions of dollars, wasting over 6 years of obsessive work that should have been spent on protecting New Yorkers from violent, rampant crime that is destroying the City and State, coordinating with the Biden/Harris Department of Injustice in lawless Weaponization, and bringing completely baseless, illegal, and fake charges against your 45th and 47th President, ME, I was given an UNCONDITIONAL DISCHARGE. That result alone proves that, as all Legal Scholars and Experts have said, THERE IS NO CASE, THERE WAS NEVER A CASE, and this whole Scam fully deserves to be DISMISSED. The real Jury, the American People, have spoken, by Re-Electing me with an overwhelming MANDATE in one of the most consequential Elections in History. As the American People have seen, this “case” had no crime, no damages, no proof, no facts, no Law, only a highly conflicted Judge, a star witness who is a disbarred, disgraced, serial perjurer, and criminal Election Interference. Today’s event was a despicable charade, and now that it is over, we will appeal this Hoax, which has no merit, and restore the trust of Americans in our once great System of Justice. MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!
Now, the once and future president can appeal the sentence, and his lawyers are certainly working on that already. It will be the next step in the long, arduous process of undoing and rectifying all the lawfare against Trump. Hopefully, we'll have a reckoning one day.
This is a developing story, and we'll have more details as they emerge.
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