Stormy Daniels affair: Donald Trump obtains unconditional release

Judge Juan Merchan on Friday granted United States President-elect Donald Trump an unconditional discharge in the case of hidden payments to Stormy Daniels. The Republican therefore faces no fine, detention or probation, but his guilt has been confirmed and will be entered in his criminal record.

Donald Trump appeared by video during this hearing at Manhattan Criminal Court, denouncing a shame for the system. With this symbolic sentence, he will enter the White House on January 20 at the age of 78 with the label of a habitual criminal.

The judge had previously indicated that he was planning for unconditional release — a rarity in criminal sentencing — in part to avoid complicated constitutional issues that would arise if he imposed a sentence that overlapped with Mr. Trump’s presidency.

Mr. Trump was convicted on May 30 of falsifying his company records to conceal a payment of US$130,000 to pornographic actress Stormy Daniels. The latter was paid at the end of Donald Trump’s campaign in 2016 not to speak to the public about a sexual relationship she claims to have had with him a decade earlier.

Donald Trump pleads that there was no sexual relationship between them and maintains that his political opponents made up a false accusation to try to harm him.

I have never falsified business documents. This is a false, made-up accusation.the Republican president-elect wrote on his Truth Social platform last week.

Trump’s personal lawyer involved

Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg, whose office brought the charges, is a Democrat.

Mr. Bragg’s office argued in a court document Monday that Mr. Trump committed serious violations that caused significant harm to the sanctity of the electoral process and the integrity of New York’s financial market.

Prosecutors said Stormy Daniels was paid – through Mr Trump’s personal lawyer at the time, Michael Cohen – as part of a broader effort to keep voters from hearing about Donald Trump’s alleged extramarital escapades.

Mr. Trump denies that the alleged meetings took place. His lawyers said he wanted to suppress the stories to protect his family, not his campaign. And prosecutors said Mr. Cohen’s payments were deceptively recorded as legal fees.

Presidential immunity mentioned

Donald Trump’s lawyers tried in vain to prevent a trial. Since his conviction in May on 34 counts of falsifying business records, they have used virtually every legal lever within their reach to try to get the conviction overturned, the case dismissed or at least postponement of sentencing.

They made various arguments to Judge Merchan, New York appellate judges and federal courts, including the Supreme Court. Mr. Trump’s lawyers have leaned heavily on arguments for presidential immunity from prosecution, and they received a boost in July in a Supreme Court ruling that grants former commanders in chief sweeping immunity.

And after Mr. Trump won last November’s election, his lawyers argued that the case should be dropped to avoid impinging on his upcoming presidency and his transition to the Oval Office.

Judge Merchan, a Democrat, repeatedly postponed the sentencing, originally scheduled for July. But last week he set the date for Friday, citing the need to purpose.

Mr. Trump’s lawyers then launched a last-minute flurry of efforts to block the conviction. Their last hope faded Thursday evening with a 5-4 Supreme Court ruling that refused to delay sentencing.

Other files at a standstill

Meanwhile, other criminal cases that once weighed against Mr. Trump have ended or been stalled before trial.

After Mr. Trump’s election, special prosecutor Jack Smith ended federal prosecutions over his handling of classified documents and his efforts to overturn his 2020 election loss to Democrat Joe Biden. A Georgia election interference case is in limbo after prosecutor Fani Willis was fired from her role in the case.

With information from Agence France-Presse and Reuters