Judge to sentence Trump in hush money case before inauguration

NEW YORK, United States (AFP) — The New York judge presiding over President-elect Donald Trump’s hush money case on Friday set sentencing for 10 days before his 20 January 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 10 January 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 have it thrown 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 potentially faced 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.

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.

Calling Merchan a “radical partisan,” Trump added that the order was “knowingly unlawful, goes against our Constitution and, if allowed to stand, would be the end of the Presidency as we know it.”

Trump was convicted in New York in May of 34 counts of falsifying business records to cover up a hush money payment to porn star Stormy Daniels on the eve of the 2016 election to stop her from revealing an alleged 2006 sexual encounter.