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The US president-elect has been declared a convicted felon in his “hush money” case
US President-elect Donald Trump has been sentenced in his “hush money” criminal case in New York, just ten days before he is scheduled to take office.
The US Supreme Court on Thursday denied Trump’s motion to stop the proceedings, citing its own ruling about presidential immunity, clearing the way for Judge Juan Merchan to hold the virtual hearing on Friday.
“Unconditional discharge has been affirmed as appropriate. I impose it,” Merchan announced on Friday, agreeing with the prosecutors’ request.
“This creates the status of convicted felon, as he appeals,” the prosecutors argued during the virtual session.
“I am innocent of all of the Judge’s made up, fake charges,” Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform on Friday. “This was nothing other than Weaponization of our Justice System against a Political Opponent. It’s called Lawfare, and nothing like this has ever happened in the United States of America, and it should never be allowed to happen again.”
Trump was charged in 2023 with misreporting “hush money” payments made to adult actress Stormy Daniels in 2017, with Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg successfully elevating what would normally be a misdemeanor offense into 34 felony counts, one for each mention of the payments in Trump’s records. He was found guilty on all counts in May.
However, the US Supreme Court ruled in July that official actions taken by a president while in office cannot be prosecuted. Trump’s lawyers argued that some of the evidence used in the trial, such as the financial disclosures and social media posts, fell into this category and could not be cited to bolster a case based on his personal conduct.
Judge Merchan rejected this ruling last month and shot down a request by Trump’s lawyers to dismiss the case. In a last-minute decision on Thursday, the US Supreme Court declined to delay Friday’s sentencing hearing, with conservative justices John Roberts and Amy Coney Barrett siding with the court’s three liberals in a 5-4 decision.
Trump has long maintained that by bringing the case, Bragg was acting on behalf of President Joe Biden, who ran for re-election against Trump until he dropped out of the race in July in favor of Vice President Kamala Harris. Trump has also been highly critical of Merchan, calling the judge “conflicted” due to his daughter’s work for Harris’ election campaign.
US voters delivered Trump both the popular vote and the electoral college victory over Harris in November. He is scheduled to be sworn in as the 47th US president on January 20.
Bragg had argued that the payments to Cohen were inappropriate campaign spending in the 2016 election, in which Trump defeated Democrat Hillary Clinton. Cohen had allegedly paid $130,000 to Daniels to stay silent about an affair she claimed to have had with Trump years prior.
