Judge sentences Donald Trump in hush money case: As it happened

President-elect Donald Trump spoke for six minutes. The judge talked for seven. In the end, the first criminal court sentencing of a former or future president took little more than half an hour.

Here are some key excerpts from the proceeding:

President-elect Donald Trump

“This has been a very terrible experience. I think it’s been a tremendous setback for New York and the New York court system. ... I think it’s an embarrassment to New York, and New York has a lot of problems, but this is a great embarrassment.”

Judge Juan M. Merchan

“Never before has this court been presented with such a unique and remarkable set of circumstances. Indeed, it can be viewed fairly that this has been a truly extraordinary case. ... And yet the trial was a bit of a paradox, because once the courtroom doors were closed, the trial itself was no more special, unique or extraordinary than the other 32 criminal trials that took place in this courthouse at the same exact time.”

Assistant District Attorney Joshua Steinglass

“Instead of preserving, protecting and defending our constitutionally established system of criminal justice, the defendant — the once and future president of the United States — has engaged in a coordinated campaign to undermine its legitimacy. Far from expressing any kind of remorse for his criminal conduct, the defendant has purposefully bred disdain for our judicial institutions and the rule of law.”

Defense lawyer Todd Blanche

“American voters got a chance to see and decide for themselves whether this is the kind of case that should have been brought. And they decided. And that’s why, in 10 days, President Trump is going to assume the office of the president of the United States.”

▶ Read more excerpts from Friday’s sentencing

And the sentencing came just 10 days before Trump’s inauguration for a second term in the White House.

His lawyers tried unsuccessfully to forestall a trial, and later to get the conviction overturned, the case dismissed or at least the sentencing postponed.

Judge Merchan, a Democrat, repeatedly postponed the sentencing, initially set for July. But last week, he set Friday’s date, citing a need for “finality.”

Trump appeared in court by video from Mar-a-Lago. Listen to his full remarks here:

Here’s what Merchan had to say when he handed down his sentence:

The Republican is echoing Trump and his lawyers by saying it never should have been brought.

“This entire case against President Trump has been a politically motivated and contrived witch hunt aimed solely at preventing him from returning to the White House,” Johnson said in a statement released by his office.

He even used a word Trump has often employed to attack his legal opponents, with the speaker calling the prosecution team “deranged.”

Johnson said he supports Trump’s decision to appeal.

President-elect Donald Trump doesn’t have to go to jail, pay a fine or perform community service as a result of his New York hush money conviction. A judge ended the case Friday with a sentence of an unconditional discharge, closing the case with no punishment.

But unless the conviction for falsifying business records is someday overturned, Trump will have felonies on his criminal record, which will affect some of his rights.

Trump is registered to vote in Florida and he’ll be able to vote there. Florida does bars people convicted of felonies from voting, but restores their right to vote after they’ve completed their sentence.

Under federal law, people convicted of felonies aren’t allowed to possess firearms.

By law, every person convicted of a felony in New York must provide a DNA sample for the state’s crime databank. Samples are collected after sentencing, typically when a defendant reports to probation, jail or prison. Samples can also be taken by a court or police official.

▶ Read more about the effects of being convicted

And that includes hosting conservative House Republicans as they gathered to discuss GOP priorities.

It was a case that for the first time put a former president and major presidential candidate in a courtroom as a criminal defendant. The case was the only one of four criminal indictments that has gone to trial and possibly the only one that ever will.

“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,” he wrote in a lengthy post on his social media platform after the sentencing.

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Following the historic sentencing, the mood outside the courthouse is festive, with a few dozen Trump supporters waving American flags and signs emblazoned with the president-elect’s face.

Some described the scene as a reunion of sorts, a chance to catch up with others who’d attended demonstrations during the trial while celebrating both the election victory and the outcome of the case.

“No penalty at all is great news,” said Jerry Gasowski, a retired power plant worker who drove into the city from Long Island. “It’s great news for our country.”

But before sentencing they chided Trump’s attacks on the legal system throughout and after the case.

“The once and future President of the United States has engaged in a coordinated campaign to undermine its legitimacy,” prosecutor Joshua Steinglass said.

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As Judge Merchan delivered the sentence, Trump sat upright, lips pursed, frowning slightly. He tilted his head to the side as the judge wished him “godspeed in your second term in office.”

President-elect Donald Trump was formally sentenced Friday in his hush money case, but the judge declined to impose any punishment. The outcome cements Trump’s conviction while freeing him to return to the White House unencumbered by the threat of a jail term or a fine.

Trump’s sentence of an unconditional discharge caps a norm-smashing case that saw the former and future president charged with 34 felonies, put on trial for almost two months and convicted on every count. Yet, the legal detour — and sordid details aired in court of a plot to bury affair allegations — didn’t hurt him with voters, who elected him to a second term.

Manhattan Judge Juan M. Merchan could have sentenced the 78-year-old Republican to up to four years in prison. Instead, he chose a sentence that sidestepped thorny constitutional issues by effectively ending the case but assured that Trump will become the first person convicted of a felony to assume the presidency.

Merchan noted that despite the extraordinary circumstances, the trial itself carried the hallmarks of every other proceeding in this courthouse.

“It is the legal protections afforded to the office of the president of the United States that are extraordinary, not the occupant,” he said.

Merchan says a judge must consider the facts of the case as well as aggravating and mitigating circumstances.

“Never before has this court been presented with such a unique and remarkable set of circumstances,” he said.

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He argued that voters saw what happened in this courtroom and, like him, thought it was a disgrace and supported him overwhelmingly in the election.

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“It’s been a political witch hunt,” he said. “It was done to damage my reputation so that I would lose the election, and obviously, that didn’t work.”

“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,” he said.

“I very, very much disagree with much of what the government just said about this case, about the legitimacy of what happened in this courtroom during this trial, and about President Trump’s conduct fighting this case,” Blanche said.

“As this court has noted, the defendant’s conduct constitutes a ‘direct attack on the rule of law itself,’” Steinglass said.

He also noted Trump’s threats to retaliate against people who have wronged him in his legal matters, which Steinglass said is intended to have a chilling effect.

Steinglass said the author of the pre-sentence report, a probation officer who interviewed Trump, notes Trump sees himself as above the law.

Despite all that, Steinglass said an unconditional discharge is the “most practical sentence prior to his inauguration.”

He notes the conviction and reviews the sentencing options include up to four years in prison, but other remedies as well.

Steinglass says the prosecution recommends unconditional discharge based on circumstances including Trump’s impending return to the White House.

Steinglass says prosecutors are OK with the potential no-penalty sentence. He cites “all the circumstances of this case, its unique posture and the defendant’s status as president-elect.”

“The verdict in this case was unanimous and decisive and it must be respected,” he said.

As prosecutors began their remarks, Trump shook his head, eyes darting around the screen. The camera view is framed tightly on him and Blanche, offering courtroom spectators a much closer view of Trump’s expression than during the trial.

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“He’s co-located with my partner, Todd Blanche,” he said.

Trump is in Florida, Blanche confirmed.

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He’s wearing a red tie with white or gold thin diagonal stripes. Trump appears stoic and reserved as he waits.

An attorney sits to Trump’s right, in front of a backdrop of American flags. American flag pins on both men’s suit jackets.

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A handful of protesters had gathered in front of the Manhattan federal courthouse Friday morning.

Some carried signs reading “DESERVES THE MAXIMUM SENTENCE” and “34 FELONY CONVICTIONS.”

Meanwhile, at a park across the street, supporters unfurled a massive flag reading “TRUMP WON.”

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In an 18-page legal opinion, Merchan laid out his reasoning for ruling that the president-elect should be sentenced later this month for the crime of falsifying business records.

His most important finding was that Trump’s conviction should not be thrown out simply because he was elected president.

But the judge also signaled that he intended to impose a sentence of “unconditional discharge,” which means Trump would not face any punishment beyond having the conviction on his legal record.

▶ Read more about what Merchan had to say

They entered through a side door, led by Joshua Steinglass and Susan Hoffinger.

Four big TV screens are mounted on the walls: one on either side of the bench where the judge will sit and one each hanging from the left and right side, parallel with the tables where the defense and prosecution will sit.

Another large monitor sits behind next to the defense table, visible to the judge’s bench. A crew from ABC News, which will be distributing an audio recording of the proceeding after it ends, was testing the microphone system. At one point, instead of the usual counting up or down to check levels, one member of the crew started reciting the first few words of the Declaration of Independence — “When in the Course of human events” — drawing chuckles from the crowd of reporters and spectators in the gallery.

Although Trump was in court for every day of the trial, the judge said the president-elect could attend the sentencing via video if he chose. He’s expected to do that, and it’s not a first in the case.

He appeared remotely for a pretrial hearing in May 2023.

On May 30, 2024, Trump became the first former American president to be convicted of felony crimes.

Trump sat stone-faced while the verdict was read as cheering from the street below could be heard in the hallway on the courthouse’s 15th floor where the decision was revealed after more than nine hours of deliberations.

▶ Read more from inside the courtroom that day.

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Trump’s trial stretched over seven weeks, with 22 witnesses testifying, including porn actor Stormy Daniels, Trump’s fixer turned foe Michael Cohen, former supermarket tabloid publisher David Pecker and White House insiders.

Prosecutors called 20 witnesses. The defense called just two. Trump decided not to testify on his own behalf. Here’s a look back at what some of the key witnesses had to say.

Trump was convicted last May of 34 counts of falsifying business records, making him the first former American president to be convicted of felony crimes.

The jury found that he falsified records kept by his company to hide the purpose of reimbursements to his then-lawyer Michael Cohen, who had made a $130,000 payment to porn actor Stormy Daniels during Trump’s 2016 campaign to silence her claim of an extramarital sexual encounter. Trump denies they had sex.

The hush money case was the only one of Trump’s four criminal indictments to go to trial.

Since his Nov. 5 election, special counsel Jack Smith ended his two federal cases. One pertained to Trump’s efforts to overturn his 2020 election loss; the other alleged he hoarded classified documents at his Mar-a-Lago estate.

A separate, state-level election interference case in Georgia is in limbo after an appeals court removed prosecutor Fani Willis from the case.

No. New York state trial-level courts rarely, if ever, livestream their proceedings. Appeals courts sometimes do.

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Judge Juan M. Merchan has presided over Manhattan felony cases since 2009, after three years in family court. Before that, he was a Manhattan prosecutor and a lawyer for New York state.

Trump has pointed to factors including Merchan’s total of $35 in 2020 donations to Democrats – including President Joe Biden – to argue that the judge is biased and should step away from the case.

A state court ethics panel opined in 2023 that Merchan could continue handling the case, and he avowed that he could be fair and impartial. Read more about Merchan, who also oversees Manhattan’s Mental Health Court.