A sentence with no penalty assures Trump will take office as a felon - West Hawaii Today

Contributing sentiments towards policy:

57% : The judge had repeatedly delayed the sentencing to let Trump challenge his conviction and complete his presidential campaign.
55% : The sentencing cleared the way for Trump to formally appeal his conviction, an effort that will coincide with the early part of his second presidential term.
51% : The sentence, a rare and lenient alternative to jail or probation, reflected the practical and constitutional impossibility of jailing a president-elect.
44% : Trump, the jury concluded, reimbursed his fixer, Michael D. Cohen, for the hush money and then directed that records be falsified to keep the payment under wraps.
42% : A former prosecutor known for his law-and-order leanings, he had steered the case through political and legal minefields, perilously balancing the competing demands of the nation's first criminal trial of a former president.
41% : "A conditional discharge would have required Trump to meet certain requirements, such as maintaining employment or paying restitution, but this sentence comes with no strings attached.
40% : Despite the special treatment, Trump and his lawyers have railed against Merchan and his family since the case began.
31% : Trump, his lawyers argued, was entitled to immunity from criminal prosecution after he became president-elect.
31% : Once Trump won the election, Merchan froze the sentencing once again.
31% : Three times over the past two years, Trump sought to oust the judge, claiming he could not be fair because his daughter is a Democratic political consultant.
27% : But while it was Bragg who prosecuted Trump and Merchan who sentenced him, they did not convict him.
26% : The case arose from a 2016 hush-money payment to a porn star, Stormy Daniels, who was selling her story of a sexual encounter with Trump.
25% : Trump appeared virtually at his criminal sentencing on Friday from his Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida, more than 1,000 miles away from the chilly Manhattan courtroom where his case was called for a final time.
23% : Although the prosecution had recommended the unconditional discharge, Steinglass still blasted Trump.
22% : Trump once faced up to four years in prison for falsifying business records to cover up a sex scandal, but on Friday, he received only a so-called unconditional discharge.
21% : Those cases leveled some of the most serious accusations a president could face: One, in Florida, accused Trump of mishandling classified documents, while the other, in Washington, centered on his effort to disrupt the peaceful transfer of presidential power.
20% : It nonetheless carried symbolic significance, capping a yearslong ordeal that consumed Trump as a weary nation reckoned with the prospect of a criminal president.
19% : "This has been a very terrible experience," Trump said during a six-minute speech.
17% : And in Georgia, where Trump is accused of trying to overturn the state's 2020 election results, an appeals court has disqualified the local prosecutor, delaying the case indefinitely.
15% : Trump sought to play down the significance of the accusations, calling them a "pathetic" waste of taxpayer dollars.
11% : Trump, he added, "has caused enduring damage to public perception of the criminal justice system and has placed officers of the court in harm's way" -- a nod to his relentless attacks on prosecutors and judges.

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