US judge spares Trump jail, fine for hush money conviction | FOX 28 Spokane

Contributing sentiments towards policy:

63% : Outside the courthouse, Trump supporters held a giant banner emblazoned with his name that was buffeted by high winds.
50% : At the end of the verdict reading judge Merchan wished Trump "godspeed as you assume your second term in office.
39% : "This defendant has caused enduring damage to public perception of the criminal justice system," the career prosecutor said.
37% : The 34 counts of falsifying business records on which Trump was convicted in May 2024 carried potential jail time.
34% : Prosecutors opposed the effort to stave off sentencing, 10 days before Trump is due to be sworn in for a second term, arguing it was wrong for the high court to hear the case when the mogul still had avenues of appeal to pursue in New York.- First presidential conviction -An unconditional discharge is a measure without any sanctions or restriction that nonetheless upholds the jury's guilty verdict -- and Trump's infamy as the first former president to be convicted of a felony.
34% : "Trump was certified as the winner of the 2024 presidential election on Monday, four years after his supporters rioted at the US Capitol as he sought to overturn his 2020 defeat.
32% : "Trump attended his sentencing virtually, with the judge, lawyers and media packed into the scruffy Manhattan courtroom that was the backdrop to the trial's high drama, legal wrangling and vitriolic personal attacks by the divisive Republican.
28% : Trump repeatedly called the prosecution a "witch hunt" which Steinglass said was "designed to have a chilling effect" on the legal cases against him.
27% : A judge sentenced Donald Trump to an unconditional discharge Friday for covering up hush money payments to a porn star despite the US president-elect's last-ditch efforts to avoid becoming the first felon in the White House.
26% : I think it's been a tremendous setback for New York and the New York court system," Trump said in a rambling rant before the discharge was passed.
26% : There was also a small vigil of anti-Trump demonstrators behind a hoarding reading "Trump is guilty.
25% : "The former president appeared on screens in the courtroom with two large US flags behind him, wearing a red tie with white stripes and looking on impatiently as the brief proceeding unfolded.- 'Continuous deception' -Ahead of the sentencing, prosecutor Joshua Steinglass said Trump had been convicted of a "premeditated and continuous deception.
23% : The trial saw Trump forced to look on as a string of witnesses testified that he had fraudulently covered up illicit payments to porn star Stormy Daniels in an effort to stop her disclosing their tryst ahead of the 2016 presidential election, which he ultimately won.
22% : Trump had sought a suspension of the criminal proceedings after a New York State appeals court dismissed his effort to have the hearing delayed.

*Our bias meter rating uses data science including sentiment analysis, machine learning and our proprietary algorithm for determining biases in news articles. Bias scores are on a scale of -100% to 100% with higher negative scores being more liberal and higher positive scores being more conservative, and 0% being neutral. The rating is an independent analysis and is not affiliated nor sponsored by the news source or any other organization.