Judge sets Trump’s sentencing for January 10; indicates that there will be no jail

In an unexpected twist, a judge set Friday that President-elect Donald Trump’s sentencing date in his trial for payments to conceal unfavorable information will be Jan. 10, just over a week before Trump returns to office. the White House, but promised that he will not send him to jail.

Judge Juan M. Merchan, who presided over Trump’s trial, said in a written decision that he would sentence the former and future president to what is known as a conditional discharge, in which a case is dismissed if the defendant avoids being arrested again.

This development marks another twist in the unique case.

In May, Trump was found guilty of 34 counts of falsifying business records. These involved an alleged scheme to hide a payment to porn actress Stormy Daniels in the final weeks of Trump’s first campaign in 2016.

The payment was to prevent Daniels from publishing claims that she had had sexual relations with Trump years earlier, when he was already married. Trump says the version is false and that he did not commit any crime.

After Trump’s election on Nov. 5, Merchan suspended proceedings and indefinitely postponed sentencing so the defense and prosecution could weigh in on the future of the case.

Trump’s lawyers urged Merchan to throw it out. They said failing to do so would represent unconstitutional disruptions to the incoming president’s ability to lead the country.

Prosecutors acknowledged that there should be some accommodation for his upcoming presidency, but insisted that the guilty plea should stand.

They suggested several options, such as freezing the case during his term or guaranteeing him a non-jail sentence. They also proposed closing the case while formally noting both his guilty plea and his pending appeal, an idea drawn from what some state courts do when defendants die while appealing their cases.

Trump assumes the presidency of the United States on January 20.

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