By GB News (Politics) | Created at 2025-01-04 21:55:46 | Updated at 2025-01-06 20:32:13
1 day ago
Donald Trump has broken his silence over the ruling in the Hush Money trial, branding the case a "witch hunt".
The President-elect will be sentenced on 10 January, just ten days before he is due to be sworn in as the 47th President of the United States.
Judge Juan Merchan denied Trump's request to dismiss the guilty verdict and set the sentencing date, indicating there would likely be no jail time or fines.
The judge stated that Trump would receive an "unconditional discharge", meaning no punishment would be imposed.
It is not yet clear whether Trump will appear in person or virtually for the sentencing hearing in New York.
The case stems from Trump's conviction in May on 34 counts of falsifying business records related to a £130,000 payment made to porn star Stormy Daniels before the 2016 presidential election.
Trump reacted furiously to the ruling in posts on Truth Social, calling it a "knowingly unlawful" decision that was "against our Constitution".
The former president branded Judge Merchan "a radical partisan" and claimed that if the ruling was allowed to stand, it "would be the end of the Presidency as we know it".
"Every major legal pundit, including Andy McCarthy, Jonathan Turley, Gregg Jarrett, and Eli Honig, has stated strongly there was no case", Trump told Fox News Digital.
He described the case as "just a witch hunt" and "a political witch hunt by Biden and the DOJ".
"They want to see if they can get a pound of flesh because every case has failed including deranged Jack Smiths, who is on his way back to the Hague after having lost every case."
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Donald Trump is unlikely to be fined or see jail time
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Trump's spokesman Steven Cheung called the order "a direct violation of the Supreme Court's Immunity decision" and insisted the case should be immediately dismissed.
"There should be no sentencing, and President Trump will continue fighting against these hoaxes until they are all dead", Cheung added.
Trump called Merchan "the most conflicted judge in the history of jurisprudence" and criticised the ongoing gag order preventing him from discussing certain aspects of the case.
A key point of contention is Merchan's daughter, Loren Merchan, who serves as president of Authentic Campaigns, a firm working with prominent Democrats.
Donald Trump was found guilty on all 34 counts in the hush money trial
Reuters
House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan has launched an investigation into Loren Merchan's work, which included receiving over £7million in compensation from work for Vice President Harris in 2020.
"Merchan has so little respect for the Constitution that he is keeping in place an illegal gag order on me, your President and President Elect, just so I cannot expose his and his family's disqualifying and illegal conflicts", Trump wrote.
The gag order prevents Trump from making public statements about witnesses, court staff, and their family members.
Trump pointed to the dismissal of other cases against him as evidence of what he called political persecution.
A federal judge in Florida dismissed Special Counsel Jack Smith's classified records case, ruling that Smith was unlawfully appointed.
Smith's election interference case was also dismissed last month, leading to the closure of his office.
"While Deranged Jack Smith was 'sent packing' back to The Hague, after losing all of his politically manufactured cases against me, Merchan, who is far worse and even more corrupt than Smith in his fight for my hopeless Political Opponents, just cannot let go of this charade", Trump said.
In Georgia, an appeals court disqualified Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis from prosecuting Trump in her election interference case, though the indictment remains.
"The case has to be thrown out because it was started corruptly", Trump said regarding the Georgia case.
