Trump Sentencing Megapost:

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.

74 comments

So .. his sentence is literally nothing?
- As a convicted felon, he has the same restrictions felons have, but that's it.
  
  Surely this means the party of law and order won't support him, right?
  
  Right?
  
  ...right?
  
  Do state-level felonies follow to other states?
- "Hello, how nice of you to show up. Prosecution has proven you did a bad thing. The law says this bad thing is punishable, but since you think it is not proven we defer to your opinion and will not bother you with repercussions for your actions. Sorry to have wasted your time and have a nice day"
- Yeah and they set the stage with the charges that were all not subject to mandatory sentencing. This is what they were looking for the entire time.
  
  No, they set the stage when they took a zillion years to bring up charges in the first place. They could have brought these charges up in 2020 when he left office but they decided to sit on the case forever.
- Yup.
You know, this makes me think of Luigi and how his sentencing will go. I assume: he will be sentenced to public execution, and be used as a martyr for the rich to send a message for us peasants,"this is what happens when you want to play hero"
- The only way they get the death penalty is convicting on 1st degree murder w/ terrorism and that's looking like too high a bar. Too many prospective jurors going "Well, I wasn't terrorized..."
  
  It'll be fucking hilarious if their overzealousness causes him to be found not guilty.
  
  This is an instance where jury nullification would be extremely just though I stand by my original statement - the optimal outcome for everyone after the murder would have been if no one was arrested and it remained unsolved.
  
  I'd love to believe you, but apparently, what's legal matters less than a loud, wet fart into a diaper.
  
  As an example, Jeffy Epstein got the death penalty for a lesser charge
Completely unserious legal system. It's no wonder people try to hard cancel healthcare executives when the law is this powerless to stop evil. When the next vigilante murder happens, I want the country to remember that no one feels protected by the law when the law continually demonstrates itself to be powerless at stopping the ownership class.
- Someti,es, things get so bad that someone has to take direct action. When the law is flauted by those in power, what other recourse do we have?
It's difficult to accept any laws now. There's no reason to follow any if the shining example of what this country has to offer is a multiple convicted rapist felon two time impeached orange orangutan who gets rewarded with being president. Again.

You can't simultaneously say "follow the rules" when the guy saying it is a rule breaker extraordinaire.
- Rules for thee and not for me.
- Other people will be held accountable. Just not this entitled criminal rapist insurrectionist president guy.
- All drugs should be legal.
- Laws and rules mean nothing if they aren’t enforced.
Plot twist: Sentence - Death.

(I can dream)
- Anything short of "you're free to go" could give him a stroke...
  
  Don’t get my hopes up
On Friday, Justice Juan M. Merchan sentenced Donald J. Trump to an unconditional discharge, a rare and lenient sentence in New York state courts that still cements Mr. Trump’s status as a felon before his inauguration.

“You’ve been sentenced to.. continue doing what you’ve been doing.”
- Nice sentence, no sentence.
  
  Not a sentence. Punctuation only.
Judge wussied out; Lady Justice confirmed absent from the US.

Buckle up, folks. We're in for a wild ride.
- Chris Smither - Happier Blue:
  
  https://youtu.be/lxTl72XVWso#t=40s
  
  Justice is a lady
  Blind, with a scale
  And a big letter-opener
  She's been readin' my mail
  I don't know why this should shame me
  But it does, somehow
  I don't care what you say
  She don't look like a lady now
  I don't care what you say
  She don't look like a lady now
- Lady justice was found murdered on fifth Avenue with no robes, no blindfold, and a fist full of dollars in hand. Maybe you think this is a recent occurrence, but you would be wrong. She was born this way. Deformed and frail from malnourishment.
  
  Maybe you are immune to criminal prosecution as well. Have you tried being a criminal? Me neither. But if it works for one, it should work for us all right? If not us all, then someone else.
  
  Someone else is immune to "justice" in the USA. I wonder who that is...
Trump is shuffling in his chair as prosecutor speaks

Donald Trump is shuffling in his chair while prosecutor John Steinglass speaks. He appears to be leaning forward to look at the screen.

Thank you CNN for the riveting updates
Listen really closely, and you'll hear the gentle whisper of the slight disturbance of the air as he gets his gentle, barely-touch-skin wrist slapping.
- Followed by six months of him whining about it
  
  The only way Trump whines about this for just six months is if he dies in six months.
Seems our institutions are promoting barbarism at this point. As Luigi put it: it's just power games at this point.
Trump can eat my unconditional discharge.

Fucking stupid country.
- I had that unconditional discharge once, shot of penicillin cleaned it right up! ;)
- Christ what a mental image.
You may think that the punishment is nothing, but this level of punishment if he was an immigrant would be enough to deport him under Laken Riley Act. And if you think "Oh, they won't pass that, the democrats are filibustering it, well..."
This country is such a fucking joke.
- Clown country
Why the fuck did they even try him if there's no consequence for a conviction? A waste of everyone's time and money.

Ice been incredibly furious about this all day. This fucking criminal flaunts his lawlessness in everyone's faces and walks away without so much as a fucking fine! Fuck, Luigi had the right ide!
- There MIGHT have been if he hadn't won re-election. I guess we'll never know.
I am so fucking angry about this. It's just going to embolden the orange duck to commit more, worse crimes. He won't ever leave the White House. This country is so fucked.
Not surprised the result is nothing but does this have no knock on legal effects? Like is there a chance this gets used as precedence in some way?
- Biggest effect is he's a felon, so no gun ownership. It's possible it will constrain foreign travel if certain countries don't allow felons to enter, that kind of thing.
  
  Neither of these really matter in practice, though.
  
  First, I doubt Trump owns a gun in the first place. He'd find a way to point at the ground, fire, and still miss. Second, no country is going to deny entry to a sitting President of the US. Third, it's Trump. At this point, he could have a Commando-style arsenal in a shed and they wouldn't press charges anyway.
  
  Our justice system was unwilling to do anything about Trump hoarding national security secrets in a golf club bathroom. If that didn't get him a permanent stay at ADX-Florence, they're not gonna throw his ass in jail over a couple of guns.
- So does this mean he’s not allowed to carry a firearm but can still use the nuclear codes?
  
  Correct!
I thought he would do his presidency from jail, but... Right, I shouldn't expect so much from this fucking place anymore
- Jail was never an option.
I've said for years the oligarchy will never charge one of their own.

Queue George Carlin 'its a big club and you ain't in it'
Brilliant.

This is a lesser sentence than I got for "Attempted Disorderly Conduct," and I pled guilty.
Can we just have a screaming face as the reply?
Could someone explain a non corrupt use of an unconditional discharge? I'm confused how such a sentence is even permissable under the system at all
- Because incoming president. It's clear had this been anyone else (Michael Cohen) or had Trump lost the election, he would have done time.
  
  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.

74 comments