(Bloomberg) -- Donald Trump has been ordered to appear for sentencing in his hush money criminal case on Jan. 10, though the New York state judge signaled that the president-elect wouldn’t face time behind bars.
Justice Juan Merchan in Manhattan set the date in a ruling Friday denying Trump’s request to throw out the conviction on presidential immunity grounds. No such immunity exists for a president-elect, the judge said.
“Binding precedent does not provide that an individual, upon becoming President, can retroactively dismiss or vacate prior criminal acts nor does it grant blanket Presidential-elect immunity,” Merchan said in his written opinion.
The decision is a blow to Trump’s effort to put the case behind him and sets the stage for a potentially explosive court appearance just 10 days before his inauguration. Merchan gave Trump until Jan. 5 to decide if he wants to appear for his sentencing in person or virtually.
With jail off the table, Merchan said a sentence of an “unconditional discharge” was the most viable solution, meaning the 78-year-old incoming president would face no real penalty other than having the conviction remain on his record. In theory Trump could have faced up to four years in prison, though the judge said prosecutors already conceded that wasn’t a “practicable recommendation.”
“This court has painstakingly considered the respective arguments of the parties and finds that setting aside the jury verdict is not the best or only way to reconcile the competing interests,” Merchan said.
A Manhattan jury in May found Trump guilty on 34 felony counts of falsifying business records to conceal payments to an adult film star before the 2016 election. Trump used the case and three other criminal prosecutions to portray himself as a victim of biased Democratic prosecutors.
A spokesman for Trump, Steven Cheung, criticized the decision on Friday, saying the case should never have been brought.
‘Hoaxes’
“President Trump must be allowed to continue the presidential transition process and to execute the vital duties of the presidency, unobstructed by the remains of this or any remnants of the Witch Hunts,” Cheung said in a statement. “There should be no sentencing, and President Trump will continue fighting against these hoaxes until they are all dead.”
In his ruling, Merchan also rejected a request by Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg that Trump’s sentencing be put on hold until after he finishes his term in office in four years, which would have left the case hanging over Trump’s second term in office.
A spokesman for Bragg declined to comment on the ruling.
Merchan blasted Trump’s lawyers for arguing that the judge is biased and conflicted as a result of his daughter’s ties to Democrats — a claim that Trump has made several times in earlier motions. The judge said the lawyers had “come dangerously close to crossing the line” and that their “rhetoric” has “no place in legal pleadings.”
The judge noted that Trump had lost three previous appeals over the same arguments and that the court’s advisory committee on judicial ethics cleared Merchan to handle the case.
Trump campaigned to return to the White House while battling four criminal prosecutions, though the hush-money case was the only one that made it to trial before the election. Two of the cases have already been dismissed as a direct result of his election win. Another state case in Georgia, over Trump’s attempt to overturn the result of the 2020 election, is in limbo after an appeals court removed the prosecutor.
Last month, Merchan rejected a separate request to dismiss the hush money case, based on Trump’s arguments that the trial was tainted by testimony and other evidence that wouldn’t have been allowed under a new US Supreme Court ruling on presidential immunity that was handed down in a different case last year. Friday’s decision addressed broader claims that the case couldn’t move forward in light of his win in the November election.
Trump has largely benefited from long-standing doctrines barring prosecution of sitting presidents. The two federal cases were voluntarily dropped by US Special Counsel Jack Smith after Trump won, citing a Justice Department policy on the issue.
Sentencing Already Delayed
Merchan reminded Trump in the ruling that the sentencing had been delayed until after the election at his own request, with the implication that the sentence would be handed down before he took office.
“Any claim defendant may have that circumstances have changed as a result of defendant’s victory in the Presidential election, while convenient, is disingenuous,” Merchan said.
Trump denied wrongdoing in all of the criminal cases, claiming that they were part of a coordinated “witch hunt” intended to undermine his bid to return to the White House.
Merchan rejected each of Trump’s arguments for dismissal, including that allowing a criminal conviction to hang over a sitting president would undermine his authority. The judge noted that Trump won the election even after he was convicted in the case.
“Whatever stigma that might have existed, will most certainly not interfere with defendant’s ability to carry out his duties — both as president-elect and as the sitting president,” Merchan said.
(Updates with Bragg’s office declining to comment. An earlier version of the story was corrected to indicate the judge planned to unconditionally discharge Trump.)
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