Donald Trump escapes jail time after his hush money sentencing, making history as the first felon president in U.S. history.
New York: So, guess what? Donald Trump just made history. He’s now the first president ever to be criminally convicted. Crazy, right? He was in a Manhattan courtroom where the judge decided not to send him to jail after his hush money trial.
The judge, Justice Juan Merchan, told Trump that the only sentence left was an unconditional discharge. He even wished him luck for his second term. Can you believe that?
This whole thing wrapped up the first successful criminal prosecution of a former president. Trump had to be there every day, looking pretty tense, arms crossed, and all. But on the big day, he wasn’t even in the courthouse.
Just hours before the hearing, the Supreme Court turned down his request to pause everything. They said his conviction didn’t interfere with his upcoming presidency. So, he had to face the music.
After more than seven months since a jury found him guilty of falsifying business records, he got that unconditional discharge. But he’s still got 34 felony convictions hanging over him as he heads back to the White House.
The prosecutor made it clear that respecting a jury’s verdict is super important in our justice system. Back in May, the jury found Trump guilty of all counts related to a scheme to keep adult film star Stormy Daniels quiet about their past.
Remember, Trump’s former lawyer, Michael Cohen, paid Daniels $130,000 to keep her story under wraps. They tried to cover it up by calling those payments “legal expenses.” But the jury had all the evidence they needed to see through that.
There were emails, texts, and even checks with Trump’s signature. It was a whole paper trail. Plus, they heard from the former publisher of the National Enquirer, who talked about how he helped Trump by buying up negative stories.
Daniels herself testified, sitting just a few feet away from Trump. She didn’t back down, even when his lawyers tried to poke holes in her story. She was like, “If it wasn’t true, I would’ve made it sound better.”
After the jury deliberated for two days, they found him guilty 34 times. The courtroom was packed with reporters, but Trump was out there giving speeches, claiming he was a victim of a political witch hunt.
His campaign is all about saying he’s being persecuted by the justice system. And just a month after the verdict, the Supreme Court made a big ruling about presidential immunity, which Trump is now using to fight back against these cases.
So, it’s a wild time in politics, and Trump is right in the middle of it all, making history in a way no one expected.
