Welcome, Deadline: Legal Newsletter Readers. Contained by the reality that the man before him was the future President of the United States, New York State Judge Juan Merchan handed down a sentence that essentially involved no punishment at all.
A jury unanimously ruled that President-elect Donald Trump violated New York criminal law by falsifying company records to cover up a hush-money payment made by his former lawyer to adult film star Stormy Daniels on the eve of the 2016 presidential election.
Trump will now be the first president to enter the White House after being convicted of a crime.
By the time he appeared virtually in Merchan’s courtroom Friday morning, Trump knew full well that he would face no real punishment for his conviction. The judge was well aware that we put presidents in bubble wrap and protect them from legal proceedings and punishments that could undermine their ability to do their jobs.
This spared Trump from having to do what virtually any other defendant would do: argue for a light sentence based on mitigating factors. Instead, Trump recycled some of his greatest hits on the case, arguing that he had “done nothing wrong” and that the allegations amounted to “a political witch hunt.”
While a conviction on nonviolent crimes would not necessarily result in a prison sentence in a typical case, Merchan laid out here the aggravating factors that could have led to a prison sentence. He wrote that Trump “has gone to great lengths to broadcast on social media and other forums his disrespect for judges, juries, grand juries and the justice system as a whole.”
In his closing statements in court, prosecutor Joshua Steinglass argued that Trump has “done lasting damage to the public perception of the criminal justice system.” Whether that is true is up to us.
Today’s ruling was about protecting the office of president, not the person who will hold it, and there may be other efforts to hold Trump accountable in the future. It remains to be seen what will happen then.
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This article was originally published on MSNBC.com
