Judge to Sentence Trump Before Inauguration in Hush Money Case

AFP/APP

New York: The New York judge presiding over President-elect Donald Trump’s hush money case on Friday set sentencing for 10 days before his January 20 inauguration and said he was not inclined to impose jail time.

Judge Juan Merchan said Trump, the first former president ever convicted of a crime, can appear either in person or virtually at his January 10 sentencing.

In an 18-page decision, Merchan rejected various motions from Trump’s lawyers seeking to have his conviction thrown out.

The judge said that instead of incarceration, he was leaning towards an unconditional discharge — a far more lenient sentence that would nevertheless have Trump entering the White House as a convicted felon.

“It seems proper at this juncture to make known the Court’s inclination to not impose any sentence of incarceration,” the judge said, noting that prosecutors also did not believe a jail term was a “practicable recommendation.”