- Trump’s sentencing was held Friday morning.
- Manhattan prosecutor Joshua Steinglass condemned the former and future president.
- Trump addressed the court directly.
After months of delay, Donald Trump’s criminal case is finally closed.
At the start of the Friday sentencing hearing, Manhattan prosecutor Joshua Steinglass condemned the former and future president, saying he “engaged in a coordinated campaign to undermine” the legitimacy of the trial that Trump faced seven months ago.
“The defendant has encouraged disdain to undermine the rule of law, and he has done this for his own ends,” Steinglass told the court as Trump tuned in to the proceeding via a courtroom livestream.
Steinglass continued, “This defendant has caused enduring damage to the public perception of the criminal justice system and has put officers of the court in harm’s way.”
The assistant district attorney said the court had found Trump in contempt for 10 different violations for extra-judicial speech.
New York trial judge Juan Merchan sentenced Trump to a no-penalty sentence after a jury, in May, found him guilty of 34 counts of falsifying business documents.
“At this time I impose that sentence to cover all 34 counts. Sir, I wish you Godspeed as you assume your second term of office,” Merchan told Trump.
Friday’s sentencing brings a delayed capstone to the criminal case just 10 days before Trump is scheduled to be sworn-in again as the president of the United States.
Trump appeared by video from his Mar-a-Lago home in Florida, sitting alongside his defense lawyer Todd Blanche with an array of gold-fringed American flags draped behind them. Emil Bove, another one of his attorneys, was the only person sitting in-person at the defense table in Merchan’s lower Manhattan courtroom.
“It was a political witch hunt,” Trump said when given the opportunity to speak. “It was done to damage my reputation ahead of the election. and that didn’t work.”
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