Donald Trump’s sentencing Friday marked the end of an onslaught of his legal troubles — but also is leaving an indelible stain on his legacy as he prepares to take office as the first president in American history sentenced as a convicted felon.
At a hearing Friday in Manhattan, Justice Juan Merchan sentenced the president-elect to an unconditional discharge, leaving Trump unpunished by prison time or fines after a jury found him guilty of 34 felony counts of business fraud in his New York hush money case. But the significance of the hearing stretches far beyond the New York courtroom and formalizes his conviction status — a fate Trump is still trying to undo with appeals to overturn his conviction.
“Donald Trump will be a felon,” said Jeremy Saland, a criminal defense attorney and former Manhattan prosecutor. “No asterisk anymore.”
At the same time, Friday’s sentencing effectively ended Trump’s years of legal woes, which had piled up in his time since leaving the White House in 2020 — then disintegrated in quick succession following his electoral victory last year.
Trump had been charged in three other criminal cases in addition to the New York hush money case, in which a jury found Trump guilty of falsifying business records in connection to a $130,000 payment made to the porn star Stormy Daniels during his 2016 presidential campaign. One federal case brought by special counsel Jack Smith charged him with conspiring to steal the 2020 election following the violent Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol. Smith’s other case charged him with hoarding classified documents after he left the White House. And another state case, brought by prosecutors in Georgia, alleged he had plotted to overturn the election results in that state.
The two federal cases against Trump were dismissed — though the president-elect is still battling to keep the Justice Department from releasing Smith’s final report. And the Georgia case is stalled, likely indefinitely once Trump retakes the White House.
A felony conviction could generally affect someone’s ability to vote, travel or own a gun — but none of those restrictions would apply to Trump, or mean much, as leader of the free world, notes Sarah Krissoff, a former U.S. attorney in New York who now works in criminal defense.
Instead, the sting for the president-elect will be in the conviction itself.
“Never before has this court been presented with such a unique and remarkable set of circumstances,” Merchan said at Trump’s sentencing, adding that his decision would be the “only lawful sentence that permits entry of judgment of conviction without encroachment on the highest office of the land.”
But that isn’t likely to matter much either for Trump, at least for the political present. During his presidential campaign, Trump framed each successive legal case brought against him as another example of “lawfare” perpetrated by his political enemies — and propelled that narrative into a fundraising fortune and ultimately 312 Electoral College votes.
“This case enraged and galvanized Republicans in a way that I don’t think Democrats, even to this day, can fully understand,” said Scott Jennings, a GOP strategist. “And it backfired on them tremendously, and every time they used the talking point that they created with this case in the campaign, I think it hurt them even more.”
After leaving the hearing on Friday, which he had joined by video conference from Mar-a-Lago, Trump framed the sentence as a win against a Democrat-led “pathetic, unAmerican Witch Hunt,” writing on social media that it proved “THERE IS NO CASE, THERE WAS NEVER A CASE, and this whole Scam fully deserves to be DISMISSED.”
“The real Jury, the American People, have spoken, by Re-Electing me with an overwhelming MANDATE in one of the most consequential Elections in History,” the president-elect continued.
After these next four years, Trump will have little political future for which the felony will matter — and with Trump’s legal cases appearing to be of little benefit for Democrats in 2024, it won’t likely be a liability for the GOP, either.
Unable to run for a third term, Trump in January 2029 would leave the Oval Office at the age of 82. In Florida, where he is a resident, he will still be able to vote for his successor. And although he cannot own a gun, that won’t be much of a problem, considering his lifelong Secret Service detail.
Still, Trump again has made history. In just 10 days, he will be sworn in as the country’s 47th president — and the first to be a felon.
“Sir, I wish you godspeed as you assume a second term in office,” Merchan said at the conclusion of the sentencing.
Erica Orden and Ben Johansen contributed to this report.
