The judge who presided over the six-week trial in 2024, Juan Merchan, had made it clear that he had no intention of fining or imprisoning Mr. Trump.
Donald Trump, the president-elect of the United States, will be sentenced on Friday for his criminal conviction related to hush money payments to a porn star.
His attempt to regain the White House was previously clouded by this case.
The US Supreme Court denied Mr. Trump’s last-minute appeal to postpone the sentencing until 10 days before his inauguration on January 20th, clearing the way for it to take place in Manhattan state court at 9:30 a.m. ET (1430 GMT) on Thursday.
The judge who presided over the six-week trial in 2024, Juan Merchan, had made it clear that he had no intention of fining or imprisoning Mr. Trump.
He would, however, permanently record a judgment of guilt against Mr. Trump if he granted an unconditional discharge.
It was anticipated that Mr. Trump, 78, who entered a not guilty plea, would participate digitally in the session.
Days before he returned to public office, he battled valiantly to avoid the spectacle of having to appear before a state-level judge.
“He doesn’t want to be sentenced because that is the official judgment of him being a convicted felon,” stated Cheryl Bader, a law professor at Fordham University in New York.
The trial took place in the remarkable context of Mr. Trump’s victorious bid to win the presidency again.
The first-ever criminal prosecution against a US president, past or present, comes to a close with the sentencing.
In March 2023, Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg accused Mr. Trump of 34 counts of fabricating business records to conceal the $130,000 payment made to adult film star Stormy Daniels by his former attorney Michael Cohen for her silence prior to the 2016 election regarding an alleged sexual encounter she had with Mr. Trump, which he denied.
Hillary Clinton, a Democrat, lost that election to Mr. Trump.
On May 30, the Manhattan jury convicted Mr. Trump on all 34 counts.
Even though the accusations were tawdry, the prosecution contended that the case was an attempt to taint the 2016 election.
The accusations and other legal issues the businessman-turned-politician faced were used by his detractors to support their claim that he was unsuited for public office.
Mr Trump contended that the case, along with three other criminal indictments and civil lawsuits accusing him of fraud, defamation and sexual assault, was an effort by opponents to weaponise the legal system against him and hurt his reelection campaign.
Judge Merchan fined Mr. Trump $10,000 for breaking a gag order after he repeatedly yelled at witnesses and prosecutors.
Mr. Merchan stated in a ruling that day that overturning the result would “undermine the Rule of Law in immeasurable ways” and that Mr. Trump’s actions during the trial demonstrated a lack of respect for the legal system.
According to Mr. Merchan, the defendant has gone to considerable measures to express his disrespect for jurors, judges, grand juries, and the legal system in general on social media and other platforms.
Hours before the punishment was set to be handed down, on Thursday, Mr. Trump posted on his social media accounts that he would be appealing the case and was sure he would win.
Although Mr. Trump was accused of seeking to rescind his 2020 election defeat and keeping classified materials after leaving the White House, the hush money charge was generally seen as less serious than the three other criminal accusations he faced. In each case, Mr. Trump entered a not guilty plea.
Nevertheless, despite a barrage of objections from Mr. Trump’s attorneys, the Bragg case was the only criminal prosecution to go to trial.
Due to Justice Department regulation prohibiting prosecution of a sitting president, federal prosecutors withdrew their two cases following Mr. Trump’s election victory on November 5.
The chief prosecutor in the case was dismissed by a judge in December, leaving the remaining state case—which was filed in Georgia over attempts to overturn the state’s 2020 election results—in limbo.
Politically, the hush money case was a mixed bag.
Following his conviction in March 2023, contributions to Mr. Trump’s campaign skyrocketed, which probably helped him defeat his opponents for the Republican nomination.
His reputation among Republicans declined following the guilty conviction, and polling during the trial indicated that most voters took the charges seriously.
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