Trump guilty of 34 crimes, no sentencing in landmark verdict
Donald Trump found guilty of 34 crimes in New York, no sentencing - as reported in the Friday statement.
The court in New York found U.S. President-elect Donald Trump guilty on Friday of committing 34 crimes related to concealing payments for the silence of Stormy Daniels. Simultaneously, it ordered the unconditional release of the convicted individual.
In practice, this means that the court identified Trump as a criminal but did not impose any additional penalty on him.
The verdict issued on Friday by Judge Juan Merchan concludes the first criminal case in history against a former U.S. president.
Let us recall, the U.S. Supreme Court had previously rejected Donald Trump's request to halt the verdict in his criminal case in New York.
"Criminal status"
"President-elect Donald Trump has been criminally sentenced. He will avoid jail time, but the proceeding formalizes his status as a felon and makes him the first to carry that distinction into the White House," commented The New York Times.
Donald Trump has thus been formally convicted of 34 instances of falsifying business documentation. The case concerns the concealment of payments for the silence of Stormy Daniels.
Announcing the verdict, Judge Juan Merchan acknowledged that Friday's decision was one of the most challenging any judge could face and stated that his verdict was dictated by the "extraordinary" legal protection of the office of the president.
However, he added that the legal protections of the presidency "do not reduce the seriousness of the crime or justify its commission in any way," adding that "one power they do not provide is the power to erase a jury verdict."
Trump was found guilty back in May of last year, but the sentencing was delayed by his motions to postpone the trial and complaints about the unconstitutionality of the process.
Trump on the verdict: "A disgrace to the system"
- It’s been a political witch hunt. It was done to damage my reputation so that I would lose the election, and obviously, that didn’t work, - the President-elect said after the verdict was announced.
As reported by the Insider Paper portal, Trump called the criminal proceedings against him "a disgrace to the system".
