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President-elect Donald Trump ranted about a “very terrible experience” and declared his innocence as he was given a slap on the wrist for his 34 felony convictions in New York.
Justice Juan Merchan sentenced Trump on Friday after a jury found him guilty of falsifying business records as part of a scheme to unlawfully influence the 2016 presidential election. Merchan handed down an “unconditional discharge” sentence, which means Trump will not face any jail time or fines.
“Virtually everyone that I know of … not one, these people are not exactly friends of mine, to put it mildly … have all said it’s a case that should never be brought,” Trump told the court before listing off authors and legal analysts he says support his view.
Throughout his remarks, the president-elect maintained his innocence: “I’m totally innocent, I did nothing wrong … The business records were extremely accurate.”
“It has been a political witch hunt, it was done to damage my reputation,” he added.
“I would just like to explain that I was treated very, very unfairly. Thank you very much.”
Before he handed down the unconditional discharge, Merchan called the ordeal “a truly extraordinary case.”
“Never before has this court been presented with such a unique and remarkable set of circumstance,” Merchan said.
Merchan ended the hearing with a final note to Trump: “Sir, I wish you godspeed as you assume your second term in office.”
Friday’s hearing came after the Supreme Court said it would not stop Trump’s sentencing in his criminal hush money trial. Earlier this week, prosecutors argued the nation’s highest court should intervene “to prevent grave injustice and harm to the institution of the Presidency and the operations of the federal government.”
In her one-page order on Thursday night, hours before Trump’s sentence, Justice Sonia Sotomayor said Trump’s arguments can be handled through the ordinary course of appeal.
The “burden that sentencing will impose on the President-Elect’s responsibilities is relatively insubstantial in light of the trial court’s stated intent to impose a sentence of ‘unconditional discharge’ after a brief virtual hearing,” she wrote.
Justices Clarence Thomas, Samuel Alito, Neil Gorsuch, and Brett Kavanaugh would have granted Trump’s application.
