Although the judge did not impose any sentence against him, on January 20 Donald Trump will become the first American president to have been criminally convicted.
The next US President Donald Trump, who will take office on January 20, has been officially sentenced Friday in the “Stormy Daniels” case, although the judge refused to impose any sanctions.
The decision upholds the president-elect’s conviction while allowing him to return to the White House without the threat of jail time or a fine.
Manhattan Judge Juan M. Merchan could have imposed a sentence of up to four years in prison, but he preferred to avoid thorny constitutional questions by ending the case.
With this “guilty” verdict and despite the absence of sentence, Donald Trump will become the first criminal to become president of the United States.
Donald Trump still claims his innocence
Unlike his trial last year, when he brought his allies to court and spoke to reporters waiting for him outside, Donald Trump did not appear in person on Friday, simply ‘a brief virtual appearance from his home in Palm Beach, Florida.
The next American president still maintains his innocence, calling the affair “political witch hunt” orchestrated by the government of Joe Biden.
At the end of the hearing, Donald Trump declared, in a message published on his social network, that it was a “vile masquerade” and that he intended to appeal his conviction.
Unanimous conviction of the jury
This sentence-free verdict closes an extraordinary case: the future president was accused of 34 crimes, was tried for almost two months and was convicted by a jury on each count.
Despite this, Judge Merchan ruled that the legal protection Donald Trump will receive as president “is a factor that outweighs all others”.
“Despite the extraordinary breadth of these protections, one power they do not confer is the power to expunge a jury’s verdict.”however, specifies the judge.
Last May, a unanimous jury found the president-elect guilty in this case, which concerns the payments he ordered to pornographic actress Stormy Daniels in exchange for her silence about their sexual relationshipas well as Donald Trump’s subsequent efforts to conceal these payments.