Justice Juan Merchan sentenced President-elect Donald Trump to an unconditional discharge in the Manhattan business records case on Friday, which does not penalize him, though it upholds the jury’s felony conviction.
Trump declared that the sentence itself proved the case must be dismissed.
🚨 Statement from President Donald J. Trump pic.twitter.com/AWjKPB44JZ
— Trump War Room (@TrumpWarRoom) January 10, 2025
“That result alone proves that, as all Legal Scholars and Experts have said, THERE IS NO CASE, THERE WAS NEVER A CASE, and this whole Scam fully deserves to be DISMISSED,” he wrote in post on Truth Social.
“The real Jury, the American People, have spoken, by Re-Electing me with an overwhelming MANDATE in one of the most consequential Elections in History,” he added.
Trump made it clear Thursday night that he intended to appeal the case after the U.S. Supreme Court denied his effort to stay the sentencing.
“For the sake and sanctity of the Presidency, I will be appealing this case, and am confident that JUSTICE WILL PREVAIL. The pathetic, dying remnants of the Witch Hunts against me will not distract us as we unite and, MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!” Trump wrote in part.
The Associated Press previously reported that Merchan, who imposed a sweeping gag order on Trump throughout the trial, was expected to sentence Trump with an unconditional discharge.
Trump–who did not take the stand and was gagged from speaking about witnesses, including his disgraced former attorney Michael Cohen and adult film star Stormy Daniels, as well as counsel in the case other than Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg–addressed the court virtually from Mar-a-Lago.
“I assume I’m still under a gag order,” Trump said, per the New York Times’s Maggie Haberman. “But the fact is, I’m totally innocent.”
He criticized prosecutor Matthew Colangelo, an ex-Biden official who joined Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s office, and Cohen, who he called a “totally discredited person,” per Haberman’s reporting from the courtroom.
Prosecutors in Bragg’s office had initially hoped to freeze sentencing for the duration of Trump’s term, which would have meant he could potentially be sentenced to prison time once he left office.
Trump’s legal team sought to have the case dismissed and the verdict vacated, citing the Presidential immunity doctrine, the Presidential Transition Act, and the Supremacy Clause, among a number of other arguments in a 72-page motion, which Merchan denied.
The case is People v. Trump, No. 71543/23, in the Supreme Court of New York County.
