Judge Juan Merchan has decided to sentence Donald Trump to an “unconditional discharge.” It is not the erasure of Trump’s 34 felony convictions but it is, The New York Times explains, “a rare and lenient alternative to jail or probation.” He had been facing up to four years in jail.
More from The Times:
An unconditional discharge would cement Mr. Trump’s status as a felon just weeks before his inauguration — he would be the first to carry that dubious designation into the presidency — even as it would water down the consequences for his crimes.
Unlike a conditional discharge, which allows defendants to walk free if they meet certain requirements, such as maintaining employment or paying restitution, an unconditional discharge would come without strings attached.
Trump never stops whining about how unfair the justice system has been to him but I’ll bet he can’t find anyone else with 34 felony convictions who wasn’t sentenced to jail. That’s not counting the 50 or so other felony charges he skated away from thanks to bamboozling his way back to the White House, with a quarter-million dollars worth of help from oligarch and puppet-master Elon Musk.
Even so, you can bet your overpriced Trump Bible that the Crybaby-Elect will spend the next four years whining, even if he manages to avoid getting sentenced. Or even if he gets his case to the Vichy Supreme Court, which will almost certainly do his bidding.
From The Times:
The judge’s ruling does not guarantee that Mr. Trump will face sentencing on Jan. 10. In the coming days, his lawyers could ask an appeals court to grant an emergency pause of the sentencing. The appeals court could then rule within a matter of hours.
Alternatively, the president-elect could decide not to fight the sentencing, now that he knows the judge is unlikely to send him to jail.
There is some benefit to Mr. Trump choosing that route. Once sentenced, he is free to appeal his conviction and mount a drawn-out legal battle across his second presidential term.
While New York appeals courts might resist his efforts, he may ultimately fare better at the Supreme Court, where the 6-to-3 conservative majority includes three justices whom Mr. Trump appointed in his first term.
Still, coming less than two weeks before Inauguration Day, the sentencing will be quite a reminder of what a fraud America elected to pretend he’s president while doing Elon Musk’s bidding.
