Ten days before he's sworn in for a second term, today President Donald Trump was sentenced in his so-called "hush-money" case in New York.
Judge Juan Merchan sentenced the president-elect to what's known as an unconditional discharge. That means he received no prison, no probation, and no fines.
Appearing from Mar-a-Lago in a dark suit and seated next to one of his lawyers with a U.S. flag nearby, Trump released a video on Friday to address the judge's decision.
“It’s been a political witch hunt. It was done to damage my reputation so that I would lose the election, and, obviously, that didn’t work,” Trump said.
Trump called the case "a weaponization of government," and he posted about the sentencing on Truth Social as well, calling the case a "despicable charade."
He wrote, "After spending tens of millions of dollars, wasting over 6 years of obsessive work that should have been spent on protecting New Yorkers from violent, rampant crime that is destroying the City and State, coordinating with the Biden/Harris Department of Injustice in lawless Weaponization, and bringing completely baseless, illegal, and fake charges against your 45th and 47th President, ME, I was given an UNCONDITIONAL DISCHARGE. That result alone proves that, as all Legal Scholars and Experts have said, THERE IS NO CASE, THERE WAS NEVER A CASE, and this whole Scam fully deserves to be DISMISSED..."
While the sentencing doesn't include a jail term or fine, Judge Merchan's decision still upholds Trump’s conviction while freeing him to return to the White House.
Trump maintains he didn't commit a crime and is expected to appeal the ruling once again.
Legal scholar Jonathan Turley believes the conviction will now be appealed out of the New York legal system, writing on X, "...Even CNN's senior legal analyst Elie Honig denounced the case as legally flawed and unprecedented. Sen. John Fetterman (D-Pa.) recently put it more simply and called the case total "#*@*!*." The whole case can now work its way eventually back to the United States Supreme Court."
WATCH: CBN Senior White House Correspondent Kelly Wright is joined by constitutional law expert and Lead Counsel for the National Legal and Policy Center Paul Kamenar to break down what President-elect Trump's NY sentencing means heading into inauguration and what Trump can expect next from the justice system.
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