This article was updated on January 10 at 9:50 a.m. PT to reflect the most current information.
Judge Juan Merchan gave President-elect Donald Trump an unconditional discharge in the New York business records case. The sentencing does not carry a penalty.
While there are no fines or jail time, the sentencing does formalize Trump’s conviction, which he is expected to appeal.
“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,” Trump wrote on Truth Social after the sentencing. “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,” he continued. “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!”
Prior to the sentencing, Trump said in court, “This has been a very terrible experience. I think it has been a tremendous set back for New York and the New York court system.”