The sentencing procedure for our first criminally convicted felon President is due to begin at 9:30 AM Eastern/6:30 AM Pacific.
Let’s keep all the comments and posts wrangled here.
Live coverage should be… Oh, I’m just going to say “everywhere”. CNN, MSNBC, etc. etc. This is history so everyone should have it.
Edit As expected, Trump is appearing remotely.
https://www.cnn.com/politics/live-news/trump-hush-money-sentencing-01-10-25/index.html
Prosecution is asking for more time to read the probation report, apparently they haven’t read it yet.
Prosecution wants “Unconditional Discharge” then layed out every reason why it shouldn’t be unconditional. Trump showed no remorse, believes he’s above the law, that the court has no authority over him.
Defense is now making their presentation.
Trump is now speaking, underlining everything the Prosecution stated. Unrepentant, defiant, disrespectful.
Judge Merchan is addressing the court and CNN cuts away to cover California. LOL.
No live broadcasting the sentencing, but audio will be available after.
7:09 AM - Sentenced to Unconditional Discharge.
Yeah I understand why in this specific case, the obvious corruption. But the framework of laws allowed this abuse, and I want to know why this is even possible, why is unconditional discharge a sentence that is allowed to be handed out, because to me, I can’t see a not corrupt way it could be applied, and it doesn’t seem like a new thing, just a rare thing.
From my own research I found this: https://www.msnbc.com/deadline-white-house/deadline-legal-blog/unconditional-discharge-trump-sentencing-hush-money-rcna187044
Which isn’t a totally satisfactory answer, but is at least some examples of it being used elsewhere.
Some states have laws with “mandatory minimum sentencing”, but in this case it seems either New York doesn’t have that, or the laws broken here aren’t part of the mandatory minimum guideline.
From a PDF here:
https://www.innovatingjustice.org/sites/default/files/media/document/2022/Summary_NY_Felony_Sentencing.pdf
"However, today, while most drug felonies in New York are excluded, minimums still apply for most people convicted of any other felony charge—whether violent or non-violent—if they have a prior felony conviction within the past ten years.
Even absent such a criminal history, minimums continue to apply to most convictions where the current charge is a violent felony."
So in the Trump case, no priors, not violent, minimums don’t apply.
NOW - If he has ANOTHER felony, he does have prior convictions and it’s a different ballgame.