Justice Juan Merchan sentenced President-elect Donald Trump to unconditional release on Jan. 10 for falsifying business records. Trump will not face any prison time or penalties.
Trump was found guilty by a Manhattan jury in May last year of falsifying business records related to payments made during the 2016 election campaign to a woman who claimed she had an affair with him about a decade earlier. He pleaded not guilty and categorically denied the affair allegations. Before the judge announced the sentence, the president-elect again declared his innocence. “I’m totally innocent. I did nothing wrong,” he told the court and the judge.
The president-elect spoke during Friday’s sentencing hearing appearing via a videoconference from Florida alongside his attorney, Todd Blanche. As Merchan delivered the sentence, Trump sat upright, lips pursed, and was frowning slightly. He tilted his head to the side as the judge wished him “Godspeed” in his second term in office.
