Donald Trump has been convicted of falsifying documents about payments to porn actress Stormy Daniels ahead of the 2016 US presidential election. However, the sentence has been delayed – partly due to appeals from Trump, partly due to legal uncertainties regarding what applies to an elected president.
Regardless of the outcome, today's sentencing is historic. Never before has an incoming American president been sentenced for a committed crime.
No Immunity
The prosecutors had previously stated that they were willing to agree to postpone the sentencing for four years, over the term of office that Trump will begin later in January. Trump's lawyers, on the other hand, had, with reference to presidential immunity, requested that the verdict be set aside and the case dismissed.
But Judge Juan Merchan shocked many when he announced over the weekend that the sentence would be handed down on January 10 – just ten days before Trump takes office. An incoming president is not immune, Merchan ruled.
The public expects that "everyone is equal before the law and that no one stands above it," it states in the 18-page verdict.
Sentence Mitigation
Merchan, however, signaled that Trump is unlikely to receive a sentence, according to American media reports. The court is instead expected to issue a so-called sentence mitigation, meaning that no punishment will be imposed.
As a result, he is not expected to receive imprisonment, fines, or a conditional sentence, writes news agency AP, but will still have a conviction on his criminal record.
Trump was declared guilty in May on 34 counts in the protracted case. According to the verdict, he ordered payments to individuals who possessed sensitive information about him before the 2016 election, so-called hush money, and then attempted to conceal it in his accounting.
Donald Trump was indicted in March 2023 on 34 counts of accounting fraud in New York. The trial began in April 2024 and the verdict was handed down at the end of May.
According to the verdict, Trump ordered payments to individuals who threatened to reveal sensitive information about him in connection with the 2016 presidential campaign. Among other things, he allegedly paid former porn actress Stephanie Clifford, known as Stormy Daniels, $130,000 not to reveal that she and Trump had a sexual relationship.
The payments were subsequently booked as legal expenses, which constitutes accounting fraud.
Trump denies the crime, has called the indictment "political persecution," and has in various ways tried to get the trial, verdict, and sentence postponed or dismissed.
