A New York judge released a decision today that upheld Donald Trump’s criminal conviction in his hush-money trial. The judge also signaled that he was inclined to spare the president-elect any punishment.
The judge, Juan Merchan, indicated that he favored a so-called unconditional discharge of Trump’s sentence, a rare and lenient alternative to jail or probation. He set a sentencing date of Jan. 10, rebuffing Trump’s request to overturn the jury’s verdict.
An unconditional discharge would cement Trump’s status as a felon just before his inauguration on Jan. 20 even as it would water down the consequences for his crimes. Trump would be the first to carry that designation into the Oval Office.
Trump is now expected to ask an appeals court to intervene and postpone the sentencing. A Manhattan jury convicted him in May on 34 counts of falsifying business records, concluding that he had sought to cover up a sex scandal that threatened to derail his 2016 campaign for president. He faced up to four years in prison in the case.