US President-elect Donald Trump reacted to his hush money sentencing by terming it a "despicable charade" and accusing the Democrats of leading a "witch-hunt" against him.
Justice Juan Merchan sentenced Donald Trump to unconditional discharge after he was convicted by a jury of 34 on charges of business fraud related to the payment of hush money to porn star Stormy Daniels during the 2016 presidential campaign.
As noted earlier, turning directly to Truth Social, Donald said, "Today's event was a despicable charade, and now that it is over, we will appeal this Hoax, which has no merit, and restore the trust of Americans in our once great System of Justice.\ "
The radical democrats, President Trump wrote with a scheduled inaugural date at 20 January of taking the Oath Office, " have lost yet again another pathetic unAmerican witch-hunt.
I was given an UNCONDITIONAL DISCHARGE. 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 further argued in the social media post.
He further described the American people as the "real jury" and said they have trusted him by re-electing the Republicans with an overwhelming mandate to lead the White House for the second time under him.
As the American People have seen, this 'case' had no crime, no damages, no proof, no facts, no Law, only a highly conflicted Judge, a star witness who is a disbarred, disgraced, serial perjurer, and criminal Election Interference," Trump remarked.
During the presentation of the case, Merchan emphasized that "Trump's presidential race victory was not a step that reduced seriousness of the crime or justified its commission in any way," even though this had to be taken into consideration.
The protections [of the presidency] are, however, a legal mandate which, pursuant to the rule of law, this court must respect and follow. But despite the extraordinary breadth of those protections, one power they do not provide is the power to erase a jury verdict," Merchan said.
In New York, he was convicted of 34 counts of falsifying business records in May to cover a hush money payment he made to the porn star Stormy Daniels on the eve of the 2016 election, in order to stop her from revealing an alleged 2006 sexual encounter.
Trump's attorneys had moved to have the case dismissed on multiple grounds, including a landmark ruling from last year from the Supreme Court that former U.S. presidents enjoy sweeping immunity from prosecution for a range of official acts performed while in office.
Trump also was charged in two federal cases by special counsel Jack Smith, which were dismissed based on a longstanding Justice Department policy not to prosecute a sitting president.
In those cases, Trump was charged with conspiring to overturn the results of the 2020 election he lost to Joe Biden and removing large quantities of top secret documents after leaving the White House.
Racketeering charges also face Trump in Georgia for his alleged attempts to subvert the 2020 election results in the southern state, though that case is likely to be put on ice while he is in the White House.
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