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Donald Trump has been spared punishment over his “hush money” conviction, escaping any sanction over his historic criminal case days before he re-enters the White House.
In a hearing in Manhattan on Friday, at which Trump appeared virtually from his Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida, Justice Juan Merchan declined to sentence the president-elect to prison time or impose any fines, instead setting him free on an “unconditional discharge”.
The proceeding attracted little of the media frenzy that accompanied Trump’s seven-week trial last year, which took place in the midst of his third presidential campaign. It marks the symbolic end of a years-long attempt by state and federal prosecutors to convict Trump on a number of alleged crimes, from trying to overturn the 2020 election results to the retention of classified documents after his previous departure from the White House.
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