The Supreme Court voted 5-4 to allow the sentencing of President-elect Donald Trump to go forward today. The bare majority was secured when Chief Justice John Roberts and Associate Justice Amy Coney Barrett voted with their liberal colleagues, Justices Sonia Sotomayor, Elena Kagan, and Ketanji Brown Jackson. However, part of the rationale for the decision was that Acting New York Justice Juan Merchan indicated that he was going to issue an unconditional discharge without any jail or probation. The question is whether Merchan could pull a bait-and-switch and decide to impose punishment. It is highly unlikely but intriguing.
President-elect Donald Trump struck the right note and declined to criticize the Court. He simply stated that “This is a long way from finished and I respect the court’s opinion.”
Some of us predicted this result and specifically noted that Chief Justice Roberts would not want to issue a stay. Roberts prefers regular order and, like many jurists, prefers for cases to be finalized to allow for a complete appellate review. They tend to oppose interlocutory appeals for that reason.
In his earlier order, Merchan discussed various options and only said “an unconditional discharge appears to be the most viable solution to ensure finality and allow Defendant to pursue his appellate options.”
That is where some of us said that this case would land after the conviction. After the election, such a sentence became all but certain. It is the only option that would avoid the constitutional problems — and likely reversal — for Merchan.
The majority took that as a done deal and noted that the President-elect would not have to attend in person and would not face any punishment. The Court may believe that it has sealed Merchan’s suggestion in legal amber. There is little likelihood that Merchan will depart from the course, but could he?
The answer is probably yes. The Supreme Court did not issue a conditional order that the sentencing is allowed if it is unconditional.
That makes this notably informal. Defendants are allowed to address the court before sentencing and no sentence is finalized until the sentencing hearing. What if Trump came in and expressed open contempt for Merchan and mocked the case? Some judges might take such an allocution moment to increase punishment. Merchan could threaten contempt but that increasing punishment would go against the operating assumption of the Court’s 5-4 decision.
The Supreme Court decision itself does not order Merchan to issue an unconditional discharge. It simply treats it as a done deal.
It is not as a legal matter, but it is as a practical matter.
Today, we will see the ignoble end to a raw form of lawfare by one of its most committed warriors. After millions in costs and years of litigation, it will result in no punishment. What the left will get is the labeling of Trump as a convicted felon, a fact that will then be repeated like a mantra by the media. Merchan can be expected to add to that rhetoric with punishment soundbites, as he has in the past.
However, the result shows how this case was more inflated than the Goodyear blimp. It will be punishment by soundbite in a case based on a ridiculous criminal theory. He will be sentenced without our even knowing what jurors concluded happened in the case since Merchan did not require them to agree on the specific motivation or purpose of underlying acts.
The benefit for President Trump is that he can finally appeal this case. While expectations are low for the New York court system which failed to prevent the political weaponization of its criminal justice system, it can now be reviewed in its totality and eventually go back the United States Supreme Court.
We need a bumper sticker, inspired by the “My Kid Can Kick Your Honor Student’s A$$!”
My Convicted-Felon President Can Kick Your Un-Convicted-Felon President’s A$$!
Floyd,
Good one! I would modify it with “My Convicted-Felon President DID, Kick Your Un-Convicted-Felon President’s A$$!” with a smiley face at the end.
Turley gets name checked by Don from Queens in his pathetic ramblings at his sentencing. Because of course he did.
Trump says he will appeal in a post to Truth Social:
The Radical Democrats have lost another pathetic, unAmerican Witch Hunt. After spending tens of millions of dollars, wasting over 6 years of obsessive work that should have been spent on protecting New Yorkers from violent, rampant crime that is destroying the City and State, coordinating with the Biden/Harris Department of Injustice in lawless Weaponization, and bringing completely baseless, illegal, and fake charges against your 45th and 47th President, ME, I was given an UNCONDITIONAL DISCHARGE. That result alone proves that, as all Legal Scholars and Experts have said, THERE IS NO CASE, THERE WAS NEVER A CASE, and this whole Scam fully deserves to be DISMISSED. The real Jury, the American People, have spoken, by Re-Electing me with an overwhelming MANDATE in one of the most consequential Elections in History. As the American People have seen, this “case” had no crime, no damages, no proof, no facts, no Law, only a highly conflicted Judge, a star witness who is a disbarred, disgraced, serial perjurer, and criminal Election Interference. Today’s event was a despicable charade, and now that it is over, we will appeal this Hoax, which has no merit, and restore the trust of Americans in our once great System of Justice. MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!
* * *
* Millions of dollars of YOUR money, never their money. Amazing what can be done with other people’s money.
All Democrat voters are brainwashed and mentally ill useless idiots in need of cult-deprogramming. They are sick people.
Every one of them is an unstable mental case.
Three of them are sitting on the Supreme Court.
Did you watch Ketanji’s Broadway debut as a trans, queer dancing singing leftist freak?
Yeah. That’s a neutral ‘umpire’ on the highest, most respected court in the land. LOL.
We are supposed to believe that Ketanji, “not a biologist,” is a neutral, unbiased legal umpire calling balls and strikes. Sure thing.
Anonymous,
If Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson can’t even tell us what a woman is, because she’s not a biologist, would she even know what balls are 😉
* Baseball lacks equity. For ketangi there’d be no distinction between balls and strikes. You get six pitches from the pitcher. No pitcher would ever pitch a strike in such a case but at least the ball wouldn’t feel bad.
Ron J: please stop. That retarded home-ec major bottle blondie white trash loser from Tennessee tried a “gotcha” with Justice Jackson by demanding that she define “woman”. Justice Jackson was wise enough to know she was being baited, so she deferred. She also knew that the reason the loser from Tennessee did this was to use her response against her if a transgender case came before the SCOTUS. She didn’t allow herself to be played, but MAGA media still uses this to claim that Justice Jackson is stupid–she is smarter that that trash from Tennessee. So, stop. Please.
Listen to the AUDIO of local judge Merchan’s voice.
What’s your first impression?
Weak. Weak. Weak. Listen to how weak his voice is.
Second impression?
CORRUPT delusional dumass.
Merchan actually sounds like he believes he is doing the “right thing.”
That’s what a delusional, mentally unstable sociopath sounds like.
ie: the entire Democrat party.
This is actually great. This is the very thing that pissed off and now continues to piss off Trumps supporters. The liberal left are stoke the fires that are at their own feet. We will not feel sorry for them when they are forced to live in the charred mess of their own making.
It is almost humorous if not for the waste of time and money. Look at everything they tried to hang on President Trump. Love him or hate him he won the Presidency and walked away with nothing more than some bogus conviction that will be overturned. They set the ground rules and now they are going to reap the rewards 🤣 I loved watching them all squirm at Carter’s funeral, there were more criminals at that funeral than there are in SanQuentin!
Why won’t Gov. Kathy Hochul DO THE RIGHT THING *FOR NEW YORKERS* and REMOVE the corrupt, lawless Alvin Bragg who refuses to prosecute actual crime??
The entire Democrat party is CORRUPT, to its core, from top to bottom.
It is self immolating as the world watches.
It is a parasitic criminal organization, run by criminals. Period.
“So Alvin Bragg, Matthew Colangelo, and the Manhattan DA’s office wasted almost two years of time and taxpayer resources … to get the right to briefly call Trump a “convicted felon” before the sham sentence is obviously overturned on appeal.
Exhibit A why NYC is a declining hellhole.” @josh_hammer
Governor Nuisance, having failed to get Chinese missiles in California, has decided to nuke Los Angeles instead.
Dostoevsky was right about these people.
You have the mind of a child in special ed.
The fires in LA are mostly peaceful incompetence.
“The fires in LA are mostly peaceful incompetence.”
Well said, Diogenes. I am going to steal it from you.
Diogenes,
Good one! Well done!!
However, seriously, I do feel for all those people, even the rich ones, who have lost their homes. The wildfires are truly devastating.
“The fires in LA are mostly peaceful incompetence.” Stupid. There were 100 mph winds, moron. That’s why the fires got so bad.
“There were 100 mph winds . . .”
So those gusts, which have been well-documented for some 150 years, were responsible for: the failure to build water storage facilities, dumping water into the Pacific Ocean, DEI hires at the fire department, fire hydrants running dry, the lack of forestry management, the pacific Palisades reservoir offline, giving fire fighting equipment to Ukraine, defunding the LA fire department, A Keystone Cops of emergency “management,” . . .
Who knew wind gusts could be so dastardly.
* But, but it’s so lucrative. Watch all that federal money pour in. Why gramma, what big teeth you have….
Has acting local judge Merchan gotten his payoff yet? How many millions for his book advance?
Thank you professor for your insights and legal analysis.
DNC Judge has a message for Trump: We don’t like bad boys winning elections.
Let Acting New York Justice Juan Merchan slap a White House-Arrest (Confinement) and issue a ankle bracelet on President Trump.
The Dem’s would love it, and they would love it even more when in Trump’s penal servitude, Vance takes the helm and works the Oval Office & Hill.
Yeah! the DEMs like the idea of Vance even more, Umm-Humm ,,, They just love him like a Sugar-Prez!
Oh Boy Is This Great!
America moved away from a “constitutional rule of law” nation with the Richard Jewel case in the 1990’s. Then Bush gave the death blow to America’s model of government with the “Bush Preemption Doctrine” and violating Section 1 of Article VI of the U.S. Constitution by violating Republican icon Ronald Reagan’s Torture Treaty.
The Tea Party was created as a result of Bush’s policies, although Republicans blamed Democrats for it. Bush was the ultra-liberal “borrow & spend” politician, which nearly collapsed the economy in 2008.
Bottom Line: America’s model of government ended over 20 years ago. The republic ended decades ago. Today in 2025, we are just seeing some of the consequences.
The only way to really make America great again is to reverse the foreign model of government created by George W. Bush. Bush created the so-called Deep State and created a secret police operating contrary to their Oath of Office.
Bush may have augmented the Deep State, and attempted (with some lamentable success) to legitimize it, but he was hardly its creator. I would refer you to a certain incident in Persia in 1953 to substantiate that claim. An incident that set the table for most of the Middle East chaos that has ensued since then, to the endless enrichment and empowerment of that very same Deep State.
Thank you for the insight in this piece, it’s one of the reasons I love this blog. Understanding is a great disinfectant; wish it weren’t in such short supply these days.
There are valid reasons why the term ‘kangaroo court’ was created (in America during the 1840’s).
What makes the case against Trump a kangaroo court?
Please comment on the evidence of just one of the 34 counts. Trump claimed to tax authorities his house was only worth $27 million in order to pay less taxes. But he claimed to creditors it was worth north of $1 billion in order to secure capital. Try playing that game with your own house, even with pedestrian numbers under $1 million. You could easily find yourself in prison depending how intentional your lie was.
Saying it’s a kangaroo court doesn’t make it so. You need to prove Trump never claimed to tax authorities his house was only worth $27 million and that he never claimed his house was worth more than $1 billion to secure capital. Your belief in Trump’s rambling idiocy that he did nothing wrong does not constitute “proof.”
You do realize you are arguing 2 separate cases, right?
No. You’re wrong. Read the indictment and the evidence. But more to the point… prove Trump never claimed to tax authorities his house was only worth $27 million and that he never claimed his house was worth more than $1 billion to secure capital.
“You gotta twist yourself into a pretzel to figure out what the crime was.”
“I would be happier, as someone who owns property in Manhattan, if the district attorney of New York County would take care of criminals who were making it impossible for citizens to walk in the streets and use the subway, to use his efforts to keep those people off the street, than to spend $5 million or $10 million of taxpayers’ money trying Donald Trump on this nonsense,”
— Judge Judy Sheindlin
Someone much smarter than you on legal affairs. HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH!!!
Try lying to your local taxing authorities. If you get caught you can use your quote as evidence of your innocence.
Yeah, try lying on official financial documents and when you’re arrested, use your Sheindlin quote to prove your innocence.
“Acting New York Justice Juan Merchan?” How about “Pretending New York Justice Juan Merchan?”
Professor Turley, I truly appreciate your blog, even though I’m not a lawyer. I had no idea what the rationale for the ruling was and felt it was important for me to understand. You elucidated it. This happens a lot for me and I’m grateful.
As an ordinary Joe Six Pack, I think the lot of them – Merchan, Bragg, Fanny, and the other Affirmative Action DA’s should sleep with the fishes.
That kind of the point. Talking heads on MSNBC can bloviate about Trump being a CONVICTED FELON (gasp!), but Joe Six Pack knows that this is all a cheap political stunt.
Nah, Trump should.
What Trump supporters should really be worried about is the Cointelpro tactic of “Covert Employment Tampering” – for more than 20 years, the federal attorney general from Ashcroft to Merrick Garland decides if you are allowed to earn a paycheck and they decide where you are allowed to work.
If the AG allows you to work, it is in extremely dangerous occupations and you will interrogated daily by abusive and corrupt interrogators.
This is the consequence of ignoring George W. Bush’s covert blacklisting system. The “Fusion Center” in your state plays a lead role in this illegal unconstitutional practice – funded by the DOJ and DHS.
This is America’s greatest evil of the 21st Century – unconstitutional covert practices that has resulted in less than 1/10 of 1% terrorism-convictions but destroyed innocent Americans. Ask Trump about this one!
“The “Fusion Center” in your state plays a lead role in this illegal unconstitutional practice – funded by the DOJ and DHS. ”
Maybe those “Fusion Centers” should be near the top of the list or programs evaluated by DOGE.
Re: Number 6
Great idea! But more action needs to take place.
These innocent Americans have been defamed within their local communities for more than 20 years. Their job histories destroyed covertly. Covertly their marriages were destroyed, their reputations destroyed covertly.
This is foreign model of government closer to communist era East Germany, illegal in the American model of government. AGs swear an Oath of Office to stop these practices. None have done so in over 20 years.
Trump’s AG needs to issue official explanations (preferably apologies) so these Americans can show it to future employers. Constitutionally oath-sworn AGs like Merrick Garland have a duty to make these Americans whole again.
“These Democrat prosecutors, agents, judges, and other co-conspirators are going to learn the hard way we’re not turning the other cheek this time.
They’ll face severe legal, political, and financial consequences.
Buckle up—and lawyer up—for the next 4 years.
Justice is coming.” @mrddmia
_____________________
Nice words Mike Davis. We’ve heard it ad infinitum. And? NOTHING EVER HAPPENS!
We watched Manafort be swiftly prosecuted and sent to PRISON.
We watched Bannon go to PRISON.
We watched Navarro go to PRISON.
We watched Weiselburg go to Rikers Island.
We watch one by one as Trump’s lawyers got indicted, disbarred, prosecuted unjustly, unfairly railroaded, ETC.
H*ll, we even watched Rod Blagovitch get railroaded off to prison.
Yet NOT ONE freakin’ Democrat lying crimimal scum has been indicted or done prison time. NOT ONE.
They all lie to Congress. Not one prosecution. Not a day in prison. No shackles, no perp walks. NOTHING.
And it’s NOT because they are “innocent.” THEY ARE THE CRIMINALS.
Where’s the BEEF Mike Davis? How’s that fundraising going?
Put up or shut up.
You understand it all, yet these low brow fools here think screaming at the moon will change the system. Or is all just cartharsis for them?
“Justice is coming. @mrddmia”
LOL, no. Trump is on borrowed time. Just wait till he f**ks up the economy. Most Americans would wish he’d been tossed in prison.
No. We all know, as I have stated many times here on the good professor’s blog, the Biden admin already screwed up the economy. The Biden admin is doing everything they can to prevent a successful 2nd Trump admin. Here is an example, note the source is the CBO, New Biden-Harris Medicare plan could cost taxpayers $20 billion in election-year giveaway, CBO warns
https://justthenews.com/government/congress/new-biden-harris-medicare-plan-could-cost-taxpayers-20-billion-over-next-three
Even more, Trump Inherits a Deeply Damaged Economy
https://www.theepochtimes.com/opinion/trump-inherits-a-deeply-damaged-economy-5788154?utm_source=partner&utm_campaign=ZeroHedge
Of course I fully expect you to jump up and down crying, “It is Trumps fault!!” Then we will drill down past the headline into the data and see when or by who’s actions actually caused a given economic down turn.
There are only 2 ways to look at this; either you know this is corrupt, desperate lawfare by losers or you are still dreaming of the bad orange man behind bars. What happens within our judicial system at this point is a tragic farce that only further illustrates the beginning of the collapse of our government’s integrity. The real loser here is us.
True enough, but there is still hope that, on appeal, the case will be dismissed as the farce that it is – even, perhaps, by NY’s higher courts who will be aware the eyes of America are on them. In any case, let the appeals begin.
I live in Northern NY State and there is no sense of shame felt by any dem here. They are entirely agenda driven progressives and worse. Just think of how clueless hochul was sending out a news brief about her great efforts to make the subways safe just hours after a woman was burned alive on the subway by an illegal alien that she had her state protect from ICE. Do you really think those prog justices in Albany will care about anything but agenda. This state needs to be fumigated of prog infestation.
Civil war then? The green Mtn. state at your service, sir!
Not a civil war, but could we trade the greater NYC cesspool (and its sh*t stain that leads to Albany) to Denmark for Greenland?
OJ appealed, too. Know what he discovered? They use the same evidence in the first trial, plus more.
Well said. Just like the “standing” farce in 2020. Reform could start with ditching that. Just another elitist tool to control the populace.
The public has been programmed and conditioned (mind controlled) by Democrats and their fake propaganda news to believe that Trump is a criminal, a rapist, a felon. He’s not. Biden is crooked as h*ll. His family is crooked. Pelosi belongs behind bars. Bill Clinton is the actual rapist. The entire Democrat party are lying criminal scum.
For four years the public has been programmed to believe that Biden is a good, honest, compassionate, law-abiding president.
IT’s SICK.
The mental illness created with the brainwashing of the public BY Democrats and their lying fake news media s a crime against humanity.
And it’s not a Qult! /s
Wally
I hear Gavin Newsom is giving away free tofu burgers extra crispy. If you hurry you can go get one.