In an unexpected twist, Donald Trump will be sentenced in Manhattan for his felony conviction after all — but he won’t have to show up in person or even face any jail time afterward.
After strongly indicating that the case against Trump for faking business documents to cover up a sexual affair was essentially going nowhere before inauguration, New York Supreme Court Justice Juan Merchan veered hard in the other direction on Friday and ordered the president-elect to face sentencing on Jan. 10.
Merchan cited what he called the importance of “bringing finality to this matter.” In an unprecedented move, the judge also telegraphed what he’s planning to do: He won’t give Trump time behind bars.
Merchan wrote that “a sentence of an unconditional discharge appears to be the most viable solution to ensure finality.” The judge also said Trump doesn’t have to physically appear in court and could instead opt for patching in via teleconference, a move the judge said would “assuage … concerns regarding the mental and physical demands during this transition period.”
In an 18-page order released in the late afternoon, Merchan directly addressed what he called the “magnitude of the unique scenario before us” and proceeded to chuck aside Trump’s lawyers’ attempts to unravel the case.
In recent weeks, Trump’s team had successfully flooded the case with last-minute legal requests aiming to hold off the case’s definitive conclusion. District Attorney Alvin Bragg promised to continue the prosecution even after Trump’s second term.
Trump’s lawyers used all kinds of tactics to tank the case over the years. They accused prosecutors of malfeasance, tried to get the judge yanked from the case, pointed to a recent Supreme Court decision on presidential immunity to undermine evidence, and most recently, claimed that a president-elect is immune from criminal prosecution as well.
Merchan swatted down each argument in turn. On Friday, his order showed he remains unconvinced that the president-elect deserves special treatment that merits dismissing the indictment entirely. The judge also put the blame on this late turn of events squarely on Trump for having so effectively delayed the case in the first place.
“The record is clear that defendant not only consented to, but in fact requested the very adjournment that led us down the path we are on,” he wrote.
For months, legal scholars expressed frustration that the case would reach an unsatisfying and hazy end.
But Merchan on Friday reasoned that this historic case couldn’t end in such a nebulus fashion, writing that an American president must be “unencumbered by pending criminal proceedings.” He noted his own responsibility as a judge “to ensure … the citizenry’s expectation be honored that all are equal and no one is above the law.” Merchan stressed “the importance of protecting the sanctity of a jury verdict.”
The judge also wrestled with the difficulty of holding off on sentencing for an entire four-year period. He called the option “less desirable” than simply sentencing Trump before his inauguration. But Merchan also left that door open in case Trump manages to interrupt the scheduled proceeding in the next seven days with legal challenges.
“If the court is unable to impose sentence before defendant takes his oath of office, then this may become the only viable option,” he wrote.
Solomon Shinerock, a lawyer at Lewis Baach, a New York firm which previously investigated Trump for the Manhattan DA’s office, called the decision “quite sound.”
“There is no law preventing sentence,” he said. “The most compelling issue of course is that a sentence of incarceration would interfere the executive’s discharge of his Article II obligations and frustrate the will of the people as expressed in a democratic election. But Merchan took that off the table by signaling that he is not going to impose incarceration. The public deserves to have this chapter closed.”
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Jose Pagliery is a reporter at NOTUS.