Trump sentencing: Judge gives Trump 'unconditional discharge' to respect presidency

President-elect Trump was found guilty in May of falsifying business records.

ByAaron Katersky, Peter Charalambous, Katherine Faulders, and Olivia Rubin
Last Updated: January 10, 2025, 10:14 AM EST

President-elect Donald Trump was sentenced Friday in his historic hush money case to an unconditional discharge -- allowing Trump to avoid prison, fines or probation, but cementing his status as a convicted felon just 10 days before he takes the oath of office for his second term.

During a brief virtual hearing, New York prosecutors blasted him for engaging in a "direct attack on the rule of law" and making efforts to "undermine its legitimacy" by attacking the judge and others involved in the case. Trump's defense team, which vowed to appeal, said the case should never have been brought and called it a "sad day for this country."

Judge Juan Merchan, who was a frequent target of Trump during the trial, said the unconditional discharge was the "only lawful sentence" to protect "the office of the president ... not the occupant of the office."

Key Headlines

Here's how the news is developing.
9:06 AM EST

Security light at courthouse with Trump attending virtually

With Trump attending the hearing virtually from Florida, security is notably light in the lower Manhattan courthouse ahead of today's 9:30 a.m. ET sentencing hearing.

Supporters of President-elect Donald Trump demonstrate on the day of a sentencing in front of New York Criminal Court in Manhattan in New York City, Jan. 10, 2025.
Mike Segar/Reuters

The table where Trump and his lawyers normally sat for the trial last year is empty; instead, Trump will appear on the four flat-screen televisions mounted on the courtroom walls.

There are a few changes to the courtroom itself since Trump's conviction seven months ago. The gallery is fully occupied and so longer subject to the security restrictions that limited its capacity, and the sketch artists are seated in the jury box. The tile floors in the courtroom are glaringly white, appearing to have been cleaned or replaced since the trial last year.

7:48 AM EST

Trump to be sentenced after SCOTUS fails to halt hearing

President-elect Donald Trump will appear virtually from his Mar-a-Lago estate when he is sentenced this morning in a New York courtroom, after the Supreme Court rejected his eleventh-hour bid to block his sentencing from taking place.

Trump had asked the nation's highest court to halt his criminal sentencing on the grounds that he was entitled to immunity as president-elect.

In a Thursday night ruling, Chief Justice John Roberts and Trump-appointee Amy Coney Barrett joined the court's three liberal justices to deny Trump the relief he sought, while Clarence Thomas, Samuel Alito, Neil Gorsuch and Brett Kavanaugh indicated they would have granted Trump's request to halt his sentencing.

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