According to Judge Juan Merchan, the first former president in US history convicted of a crime, Trump can attend his January 10 sentencing in person or virtually.
New York:
On Friday, the New York judge presiding over President-elect Donald Trump’s hush money case set sentencing for 10 days before his January 20 inauguration and said he was not inclined to impose jail time. Judge Juan Merchan said Trump, the first former president ever convicted of a crime, can appear either in person or virtually at his January 10 sentencing.
In an 18-page decision, Merchan upheld Trump’s conviction by a New York jury, rejecting various motions from Trump’s lawyers seeking to throw it out. The judge said that instead of incarceration, he was leaning towards an unconditional discharge — meaning the real estate tycoon would not be subject to any conditions.
The sentence would nevertheless see Trump entering the White House as a convicted felon.
The 78-year-old Trump could face up to four years in prison, but legal experts — even before he won the November presidential election — did not expect Merchan to send the former president to jail.
“It seems proper at this juncture to make known the Court’s inclination not to impose any sentence of incarceration,” the judge said, noting that prosecutors also did not believe a jail term was a “practicable recommendation.”
Trump, who is expected to lodge an appeal that could potentially delay his sentencing, denounced the decision late Friday.
“This illegitimate political attack is nothing but a Rigged Charade,” he wrote on his platform Truth Social.
