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Judge sets Trump's sentencing in hush money case for Jan. 10, but signals no jail time

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Judge sets Trump's sentencing in hush money case for Jan. 10, but signals no jail time
News

News

Judge sets Trump's sentencing in hush money case for Jan. 10, but signals no jail time

2025-01-04 10:17 Last Updated At:10:21

NEW YORK (AP) — In an extraordinary turn, a judge Friday set President-elect Donald Trump's sentencing in his hush money criminal case for Jan. 10 — little over a week before he's due to return to the White House — but indicated he wouldn't be jailed.

The development nevertheless leaves Trump on course to be the first president to take office convicted of felony crimes.

Manhattan Judge Juan M. Merchan, who presided over Trump’s trial, signaled in a written decision that he'd sentence the former and future president to what's known as an unconditional discharge, in which a conviction stands but the case is closed without jail time, a fine or probation. Trump can appear virtually for sentencing, if he chooses.

Rejecting Trump’s push to dismiss the verdict and throw out the case on presidential immunity grounds and because of his impending second term, Merchan wrote that only “bringing finality to this matter” would serve the interests of justice.

He said he sought to balance Trump’s ability to govern, “unencumbered” by the case, against other interests: the U.S. Supreme Court's July ruling on presidential immunity and the public’s expectation “that all are equal and no one is above the law,” and the importance of respecting a jury verdict.

“This court is simply not persuaded that the first factor outweighs the others at this stage of the proceeding,” Merchan wrote in an 18-page decision.

Trump lashed out at Merchan on his Truth Social platform Friday, writing that it “would be the end of the Presidency as we know it” if the judge’s ruling is allowed to stand.

He repeated his claims that the case was an “illegitimate political attack” and “nothing but a Rigged Charade” perpetuated by Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg, a Democrat. He didn’t elaborate on potential next legal moves.

Bragg’s office declined to comment on Merchan’s ruling.

Former Manhattan Judge Diane Kiesel said the ruling can’t be appealed under New York law, but Trump nonetheless might try to appeal it. In any event, he can appeal his conviction — a step that can’t be taken until he is sentenced — but he won't be able to pardon himself. Trump’s case was tried in state court, but presidential pardons only apply to federal crimes.

Trump takes office Jan. 20 as the first former president to be convicted of a crime and the first convicted criminal to be elected to the office.

The Republican was found guilty in May of 34 counts of falsifying business records.

The charges involved an alleged scheme to hide a hush money payment to porn actor Stormy Daniels in the last weeks of Trump’s first campaign in 2016. The payout was made to keep her from publicizing claims she’d had sex with the married Trump years earlier. He says that her story is false and that he did nothing wrong.

The case centered on how Trump accounted for reimbursing his personal attorney at the time, Michael Cohen, for the Daniels payment. Cohen on Friday called Merchan’s decision to go ahead with the sentencing “judicious and appropriate.”

The conviction left Trump, 78, facing the possibility of punishment ranging from a fine or probation to up to four years in prison. His sentencing initially was set for last July 11, then postponed twice at the defense’s request.

Then, after Trump's Nov. 5 election, Merchan delayed the sentencing again so the defense and prosecution could weigh in on the future of the case.

Trump’s lawyers urged Merchan to toss it. They said it would otherwise pose unconstitutional “disruptions” to the incoming president’s ability to run the country.

Prosecutors acknowledged there should be some accommodation for his upcoming presidency, but they insisted the conviction should stand.

They suggested various options, such as freezing the case during his term or guaranteeing him a no-jail sentence. They also proposed closing the case while formally noting both his conviction and his undecided appeal — a novel idea drawn from what some state courts do when criminal defendants die while appealing their cases.

Merchan ruled that Trump’s current status as president-elect does not afford him the same immunity as a sitting president. Setting the verdict aside and dismissing the case would be a “drastic” step and would “undermine the Rule of Law in immeasurable ways,” Merchan wrote.

Before Trump’s November election, his lawyers sought to reverse his conviction for a different reason: the Supreme Court's immunity decision, which gave presidents broad protection from criminal prosecution.

Trump was a private citizen — campaigning for president, but neither elected nor sworn in — when Cohen paid Daniels in October 2016. He was president when Cohen was reimbursed, and Cohen testified that they discussed the repayment arrangement in the Oval Office.

The Trump hush money attorneys contended that the jury got some evidence that should have been shielded by presidential immunity. Merchan later rejected that argument, but in the meantime, the election raised new issues.

While urging Merchan to nix the conviction, Trump also sought to move the case to federal court, where he could also assert immunity. A federal judge repeatedly said no, but Trump appealed.

The hush money case was the only one of Trump’s four criminal indictments to go to trial.

Since the election, special counsel Jack Smith has ended his two federal cases. One pertained to Trump’s efforts to overturn his 2020 election loss; the other alleged he hoarded classified documents at his Mar-a-Lago estate.

A separate, state-level election interference case in Georgia is in limbo after an appeals court removed prosecutor Fani Willis from the case.

Trump's lawyers argued that Smith’s decision to dismiss the federal indictments against Trump should propel a dismissal of the New York hush money case, as well. But Merchan said he found that argument unpersuasive, noting that the hush money case was in a “vastly” different stage.

Associated Press writer Larry Neumeister contributed.

FILE — Michael Cohen leaves his apartment building in New York, May 14, 2024. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig, File)

FILE — Michael Cohen leaves his apartment building in New York, May 14, 2024. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig, File)

FILE — Adult film actress Stormy Daniels attends the opening of the adult entertainment fair "Venus," in Berlin, Oct. 11, 2018. (AP Photo/Markus Schreiber, File)

FILE — Adult film actress Stormy Daniels attends the opening of the adult entertainment fair "Venus," in Berlin, Oct. 11, 2018. (AP Photo/Markus Schreiber, File)

FILE - Judge Juan M. Merchan sits for a portrait in his chambers in New York, March 14, 2024. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig, File)

FILE - Judge Juan M. Merchan sits for a portrait in his chambers in New York, March 14, 2024. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig, File)

FILE - Former President Donald Trump waits for the start of proceedings in Manhattan criminal court, April 23, 2024, in New York. (AP Photo/Yuki Iwamura, Pool, File)

FILE - Former President Donald Trump waits for the start of proceedings in Manhattan criminal court, April 23, 2024, in New York. (AP Photo/Yuki Iwamura, Pool, File)

A U.S.-Russian dual national imprisoned in Russia on treason charges was freed Thursday in exchange for a Russian man jailed on smuggling charges in the U.S., a prisoner swap that comes as Moscow and Washington have made efforts to repair ties.

Ksenia Karelina, also identified in the media as Ksenia Khavana, is “on a plane back home to the United States,” U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said in a post on social media platform X. She was arrested in the Ural Mountains city of Yekaterinburg in February 2024 and convicted of treason on charges stemming from a donation of about $52 to a charity aiding Ukraine. American authorities have called the case “absolutely ludicrous.”

Russia’s Federal Security Service, the country’s main security and counterespionage agency, said that dual Russian-German citizen Arthur Petrov was released as part of a swap. Petrov was arrested in Cyprus in August 2023 at the request of the U.S. on charges of smuggling sensitive microelectronics to Russia and extradited to the U.S. a year later.

Karelina was among a growing number of Americans arrested in Russia in recent years as tensions between Moscow and Washington spiked over the war in Ukraine. Her release is the latest in a series of high-profile prisoner exchanges Russia and the United States carried out in the last three years — and the second since President Donald Trump took office less than three months ago and reversed Washington's policy of isolating Russia in an effort to end the war in Ukraine.

Russian and U.S. diplomats are sitting down Thursday for another round of talks in Istanbul on improving diplomatic ties.

In February, Russia released American teacher Marc Fogel, imprisoned on drug charges, in what the White House described as a diplomatic thaw that could advance peace negotiations. That same month, Russia released another American just days after arresting him on drug smuggling charges.

Karelina, a former ballet dancer, reportedly obtained U.S. citizenship after marrying an American and moving to Los Angeles. She was arrested when she returned to Russia to visit her family last year.

The Federal Security Service, or FSB, accused her of “proactively" collecting money for a Ukrainian organization that was supplying gear to Kyiv's forces. The First Department, a Russian rights group, said the charges stemmed from a $51.80 donation to a U.S. charity aiding Ukraine.

“I am overjoyed to hear that the love of my life, Ksenia Karelina is on her way home from wrongful detention in Russia,” Karelina’s fiancé, Chris van Heerden, said in a statement. “She has endured a nightmare for 15 months and I cannot wait to hold her. Our dog, Boots, is also eagerly awaiting her return.”

He thanked Trump and Trump administration envoys, as well as prominent public figures who had championed her case.

Karelina’s lawyer Mikhail Mushailov said she was flying to the U.S. after a prisoner swap in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates.

The FSB said in a statement that Russian President Vladimir Putin had pardoned Karelina before the swap. It said that Petrov, who was facing a 20-year prison term in the U.S., was exchanged for Karelina at the Abu Dhabi international airport with the UAE mediation.

The agency released a video that showed Karelina being escorted to a plane somewhere in Russia and featured of what appeared to be the scene of exchange at the Abu Dhabu airport. The same video showed Petrov undergoing medical checkups on a flight to Russia and saying he was feeling normal.

Petrov was accused by the U.S. Justice Department of involvement in a scheme to procure microelectronics subject to U.S. export controls on behalf of a Russia-based supplier of critical electronic components for the country's weapons industries.

The exchange was first reported by the Wall Street Journal, citing a statement from CIA director John Ratcliffe, who it said was on hand for the swap at an airport in Abu Dhabi.

An email seeking comment was sent to the CIA in the early hours of Thursday.

Abu Dhabi was the scene of another high-profile prisoner swap between Russia and the United States. In December 2022, American basketball star Brittney Griner was traded for the notorious Russian arms dealer Viktor Bout.

The UAE has been a mediator in prisoner swaps between Russia and Ukraine, while the skyscraper-studded city of Dubai has become home to many Russians and Ukrainian who fled there after the start of Moscow’s 2022 full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

FILE - Ksenia Karelina, also known as Khavana sits in a glass cage in a court room in Yekaterinburg, Russia, Thursday, June 20, 2024. (AP Photo, File)

FILE - Ksenia Karelina, also known as Khavana sits in a glass cage in a court room in Yekaterinburg, Russia, Thursday, June 20, 2024. (AP Photo, File)

FILE - Ksenia Karelina, also known as Khavana sits in a glass cage in a court room in Yekaterinburg, Russia, Thursday, Aug. 15, 2024.(AP Photo/File)

FILE - Ksenia Karelina, also known as Khavana sits in a glass cage in a court room in Yekaterinburg, Russia, Thursday, Aug. 15, 2024.(AP Photo/File)

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