Closing summary
New York judge Juan Merchan sentenced Donald Trump in his hush money case to unconditional discharge, which means the incoming president will serve no jail time and pay no fines after being convicted on 34 felony business fraud charges. Despite the leniency, Trump blasted the prosecution as a “despicable charade”, and proclaimed his innocence, while Republican lawmakers, including senator Lindsey Graham and House speaker Mike Johnson, rallied to his defense. Trump now has few unfinished pieces of legal business standing between him and inauguration on 20 January, but there does remain the question of whether the justice department will be able to release special counsel Jack Smith’s report into his aborted prosecution of the president-elect for allegedly trying to overturn his 2020 election defeat. A federal appeals court ruling yesterday offered some hope that it could come out, but obstacles remain.
Here’s what else has happened today
Merchan said Trump’s re-election was a major factor in his decision to let him escape any meaningful penalties after his convictions.
Trump supporters and opponents gathered outside the Manhattan criminal court during the president-elect’s sentencing, at which he appeared virtually.
The supreme court heard arguments over a law that could lead to TikTok being banned in the United States after 19 January, and appeared inclined to uphold it.
JD Vance is resigning from the Senate, ahead of his inauguration as vice-president in 10 days.
The Trump Hotel could rise again in Washington DC. The president-elect’s organization is reportedly looking to regain the lease on a Washington DC hotel it owned during his first term.
Panama’s leaders are taking seriously Donald Trump’s threats of seizing the Panama canal, Politico reports.
A former president who spoke to the publication says José Mulino may take the issue to the UN security council, should Trump continue to press his demands.
Here’s more, from Politico:
Panama’s president José Mulino said privately this week that if Donald Trump continues to threaten his country, he could take the issue to the UN security council, according to Panama’s former president Ernesto Balladares.
But Mulino said he was waiting until Trump takes office to assess whether the incoming US president will press the matter, according to Balladares.
“He said he will take more actions after 20 January … if President-elect Trump insists on the issue,” Balladares recounted in an interview at his office.
Balladares said that Mulino made the remarks to him during a Wednesday gathering at Panama’s presidential palace, where Latin American leaders met with Venezuela’s opposition leader Edmundo González.
Mulino did not specify any other actions he might take, according to Balladares.
“Like everybody else in this country he’s surprised,” Balladares said of his successor’s response to Trump’s rhetoric.
The Wednesday remarks came one day after Trump declined to rule out the use of military force to take back the Panama canal, which the US ceded to Panama a quarter-century ago.
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JD Vance has submitted his resignation from the Senate, effective at midnight tonight, so he can prepare to be inaugurated Donald Trump’s vice-president.
“As I prepare to assume my duties as vice-president of the United States, I would like to express that it has been a tremendous honor and privilege to serve the people of Ohio in the Senate over the past two years,” Vance wrote to the state’s governor Mike DeWine.
Vance was elected to Congress’s upper chamber in 2022. He had not previously held elected office.
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Supreme court signals skepticism with TikTok's challenge to impending ban
The supreme court appeared inclined to uphold a law that will ban TikTok on 19 January, unless the China-based owner of the social media app sells its US business.
Here’s more on the oral arguments, from the Guardian’s Dara Kerr:
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The Guardian’s Victoria Bekiempis was in the courtroom when Donald Trump was sentenced, and reports that it was a more muted affair than one would expect – in part because the president-elect was not there:
Donald Trump’s felony sentencing Friday morning had many of the trappings of his prior appearances at Manhattan supreme court. Queues of bleary-eyed reporters. Clusters of amped-up court officers. Whispers of worrisome internet service among concerned journalists.
What Trump’s hush money sentencing did not have: Trump in person.
When the judge, Juan Merchan, issued his 3 January decision upholding the jury’s verdict on the once-and-future US president, he scheduled Trump’s sentencing for 10 January and he gave Trump an opportunity to attend virtually, if he so chose.
Trump took him up on that offer – despite having used the courthouse as a campaign stop and platform for airing his many grievances throughout his trial.
Trump’s absence was felt. When the courthouse doors opened just before 8am ET, attendees only had to pass through one set of metal detectors, rather than one downstairs and one upstairs. Those with state courts-specific press credentials didn’t have to walk through any magnetometers at all.
With Trump gone, security was getting back to normal.
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Listen as Trump protests at sentencing, and judge explains penalty
Audio has been released of Donald Trump’s brief sentencing hearing in New York, in which judge Juan Merchan cited his looming inauguration to hand down a sentence that includes no real penalties for the president-elect’s conviction on 34 felony business fraud charges.
Here’s Trump defending his conduct:
And Merchan explaining the rationale for his sentence:
Donald Trump won’t be involved in the day-to-day management of the family business empire, the Trump Organization, once he takes office, the Wall Street Journal reported today, citing an ethics plan from the company.
William Burck at the law firm Quinn Emanuel will assist in developing internal ethics policies and procedures to avoid any perceived conflicts, the report said, citing the Trump Organization, Reuters writes.
The Trump Organization won’t enter into new contracts with foreign governments during Trump’s presidency, the report said.
The Trump Organization did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The WSJ report added that the Trump Organization will also voluntarily donate to the US treasury profits it identifies as coming from foreign government officials at its hotels and businesses.
Once he takes office on 20 January, his investments will be independently managed by outside institutions, the WSJ report went on, adding that Trump would also have “limited access” to Trump Organization’s financial information.
Trump and his sons Don Jr and Eric were last year ordered to pay over $350m plus pre-judgment interest by a New York judge who found them guilty of intentionally committing financial fraud over the course of a decade while in control of the Trump Organization, in a civil case led by the office of the New York attorney general Letitia James.
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Donald Trump’s company is in negotiations to repurchase the lease on a hotel in Washington it used to own, the Wall Street Journal reported today, citing people familiar with the matter.
The Trump Organization had sold the lease on the hotel, which is blocks away from the White House in the historic Old Post Office Building, for $375m in 2022. The hotel was leased to the Trumps in 2013 by the federal government, which owns the building, Reuters reports.
Eric Trump, executive vice-president at the company and Trump’s son, discussed buying the lease with merchant bank BDT & MSD Partners – which controls the long-term lease on the hotel, the report said.
Talks are still in the preliminary stages and may not lead to a sale of the property’s lease, the report added. The hotel currently operates under a brand owned by Hilton Worldwide.
During Trump’s first term, Democrats had criticized the lease as a conflict of interest, after which his son, Donald Trump Jr, took the reins at the hotel.
The Trump Organization, Hilton and BDT & MSD Partners did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The Guardian and others previously reported how the hotel during Trump 1.0 became a golden egg for the family as those seeking influence and face time with the-then president dropped loadsa money at the place with its see-and-be-seen lobby and bar for power players and wannabes.
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As Donald Trump prepares to take office as a president who has called the global climate crisis a hoax and a scam, leading US government experts in climate science report, without any equivocation today, that 2024 was the hottest year ever recorded for the world’s lands and oceans.
Their report provides yet another measure of how the climate crisis is pushing humanity into temperatures we have previously never experienced. Here in the US right now, record wildfires are raging out of control around Los Angeles amid the kind of prolonged droughts, rising temperatures and disrupted patterns that are unprecedented.
Last year was the hottest in global temperature records stretching back to 1850, the federal agency the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (Noaa) announced, with the worldwide average 1.46C (2.6F) warmer than the era prior to humans burning huge volumes of planet-heating fossil fuels.
The data supports separate figures released by European Union scientists this week that also show a record 2024, albeit those figures showed 2024 was 1.6C (2.8F) hotter than pre-industrial times, the first measure beyond the internationally-agreed threshold of keeping long-term temperatures below a 1.5C (2.7F) rise.
While a single year above 1.5C does not void the Paris climate agreement target to help protect the most vulnerable countries from worsening heatwaves, droughts, storms and other impacts, scientists have said the goal is effectively “deader than a doornail” and will be surpassed in the longer term within a decade. Trump pulled the US out of the Paris agreement in his first term and Joe Biden re-joined asap in his administration.
Follow our wildfires live blog here.
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The day so far
New York judge Juan Merchan sentenced Donald Trump in his hush money case to unconditional discharge, which means the incoming president will serve no jail time and pay no fines after being convicted on 34 felony business fraud charges. Despite the leniency, Trump blasted the prosecution as a “despicable charade”, and proclaimed his innocence, while Republican lawmakers, including senator Lindsey Graham and House speaker Mike Johnson, rallied to his defense. Trump now has few unfinished pieces of legal business standing between him and inauguration on 20 January, but there remains the question of whether the justice department will be able to release special counsel Jack Smith’s report into his aborted prosecution of the president-elect for allegedly trying to overturn his 2020 election defeat. A federal appeals court ruling yesterday offered some hope that it could come out, but obstacles remain.
Here’s what else has happened today so far:
Merchan said Trump’s re-election was a major factor in his decision to let him escape any meaningful penalties after his convictions.
Trump supporters and opponents gathered outside the Manhattan criminal court during the president-elect’s sentencing, at which he appeared virtually.
The supreme court heard arguments over a law that could lead to TikTok being banned in the United States after 19 January. Follow our live blog for more.
From the Guardian’s Victoria Bekiempis and Joan E Greve, here’s the full report on Donald Trump’s sentencing today in the New York hush money case – the only one of his four criminal indictments to reach a jury verdict before his return to the White House:
Donald Trump will avoid jail time for his felony conviction in the New York hush-money case, a judge determined on Friday, marking both a dramatic and anti-climactic development in the historic criminal proceedings weeks before he returns to the White House.
The judge who presided over Trump’s criminal trial, Juan Merchan, issued a sentence of “unconditional discharge”, meaning the president-elect will be released without fine, imprisonment or probation supervision for his conviction on 34 felony counts of falsifying business records. While the sentence makes Trump a convicted felon, he will face no penalty other than this legal designation.
Trump, whose presidential inauguration is scheduled for 20 January, is the first US president – former or sitting – to face a criminal trial, let alone a guilty verdict and subsequent sentencing.
Addressing the court via video shortly before receiving his sentence, Trump called the case “a very terrible experience”, an “injustice” and a “political witch-hunt”.
Johnson seeks to restore 'American people’s trust in our system of justice'
Mike Johnson, the Republican speaker of the House of Representatives, assailed Donald Trump’s prosecution on business fraud charges as “a politically motivated and contrived witch-hunt” in a statement released after his sentencing today.
The Trump ally also signaled he would support unspecified efforts aimed at “restoring the American people’s trust in our system of justice”. The president-elect’s appointees for key cabinet positions have been critical of efforts to prosecute Trump for various offenses, including the hush money payment that a jury determined ran afoul of New York’s state fraud laws.
Here’s more, from Johnson’s statement:
This entire case against President Trump has been a politically motivated and contrived witch-hunt aimed solely at preventing him from returning to the White House. It was never about the facts, and it should have never been brought in the first place. The judge grossly perverted the American legal system by manipulating existing law in a purely partisan effort to convert a bogus misdemeanor charge into a felony. Judge Merchan and the deranged prosecution have done untold damage to our justice system.
But despite this liberal judge’s tireless efforts and obvious media campaign to smear President Trump, the only jury that matters – the American people – saw through this corruption of justice, spoke decisively, and rejected their weaponization of government.
After four years of lawfare, restoring the American people’s trust in our system of justice will be critically important, and I support President Trump’s decision to appeal this decision and put this shameful chapter in American history behind us.
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Trump plans to separate himself from family business once he takes office – report
Once he is inaugurated as president, Donald Trump plans to separate himself from his Trump Organization family business, under a set of soon-to-be-released ethics rules, the Wall Street Journal reports.
Ethics groups and Democratic lawmakers have warned of the potential for Trump to enrich his businesses through decisions made in his capacity as US president. Here’s more about the new rules, from the Journal:
President-elect Donald Trump won’t be involved in the day-to-day management of the Trump Organization once he takes office and the company won’t enter into new contracts with foreign governments during his presidency, according to an ethics plan set to be released by the company on Friday.
Prominent lawyer William Burck will assist in developing internal ethics politics and procedures to avoid any perceived conflicts, the company said. “The Trump Organization is dedicated to not just meeting but vastly exceeding its legal and ethical obligations during my father’s presidency,” Eric Trump, the president-elect’s son and the Trump Organization’s executive vice president, said in a statement.
Among other measures, the company said it would voluntarily donate to the U.S. Treasury profits it receives from foreign government officials the company can identify at its hotels and other businesses. The plan states that the president-elect’s investments will be independently managed by outside institutions that will “neither solicit nor accept input” from him.
Trump will also have “limited access” to the company’s financial information. The Trump Organization said it would limit information “to only reflect general business updates of the company as a whole and not an accounting of the performance of any specific business or asset.”
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Here are sketches from inside the courtroom as judge Juan Merchan sentenced Donald Trump today:
Republicans have widely condemned Alvin Bragg’s prosecution of Donald Trump on business fraud charges, even after a jury found him guilty of 34 felonies last year.
Following his sentencing today, Republican senator Lindsey Graham accused Bragg of charging the president-elect for political reasons. From a statement issued by the senator:
The New York justice system is beyond anti-Trump. The New York attorney general and Manhattan District Attorney see president Trump as a political prize.
They have singled out President Trump for prosecution for offenses that either never existed before or were cobbled together to get a result and make Trump a felon.
President Trump has been tried in the most liberal state and local jurisdictions in America by the most liberal prosecutors and judges.
The judge in this case rushed this sentencing so that he can tell the world, ‘I made Trump a felon.’ I am sure he will be in great demand on the Manhattan party circuit.
I am confident the judge’s decision will be overturned by the supreme court.
The prosecutor’s statements are a weak attempt to dress up a sham proceeding.
Will justice department special counsel Jack Smith’s report into his attempt to prosecute Donald Trump for allegedly attempting to overturn the 2020 election be released before the president-elect is inaugurated? An appeals court ruling yesterday offered some hope, but did not entirely resolve the question, the Guardian’s Hugo Lowell reports:
A federal appeals court on Thursday rejected an attempt to block special counsel Jack Smith from releasing his final report into the two federal criminal cases he brought against Donald Trump but, crucially, left in place a temporary injunction that prevents it from becoming public.
The order from the US court of appeals for the 11th circuit means the injunction imposed by the US district judge Aileen Cannon who handled the Trump’s prosecution on charges of mishandling classified documents will remain in place for at least three more days.
But the temporary injunction could last longer, Trump’s legal team suggested, pointing to language in Cannon’s decision that made clear the injunction was not her last word on the matter and that she still intended to rule on whether the report should ever be made public.
That language was buried at the end of Cannon’s order on Tuesday, reading: “This Order shall not be construed as the final ruling on the merits of the emergency motion, which remains pending before this court subject to any directives from the Eleventh Circuit.”
With the 11th circuit declining to weigh in, the matter of whether the special counsel report should be publicly released appears set to return to Cannon, the lower court judge who dismissed the documents case in a decision last year that is being challenged by the justice department.
Supreme court hears challenge to law that could lead to TikTok ban
The supreme court is right now hearing oral arguments over a law that will force TikTok’s China-based owner to sell its US operations by 19 January, or face a ban.
It’s a big case involving one of the most popular social media apps in the country. We are blogging the oral arguments live, and you can follow them here:
Trump calls sentencing 'despicable charade', says unconditional discharge proves 'THERE IS NO CASE'
Donald Trump has assailed the hush money case against him in a post on Truth Social, and said the unconditional discharge sentence he was given today is proof that “THERE IS NO CASE”.
Here’s what he wrote:
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!
John Ahern said he flew up from Florida last night so he could be here today.
“This is a travesty of justice” Ahern, 76, said. “I just wanted to be here.”
Ahern, who was also present for Trump’s trial in the spring, lives in New York, but was down in Florida this week, before deciding to fly up for the sentencing.
He spent all day at a Staples store in Florida yesterday printing banners for his protest, he said.
His sign reads, “Enough was enough, we voted!!! Trump won!!!”.
“Ultimately, I’m enthusiastic about what’s going to happen, not just for America, but for the world”, after Trump is inaugurated, he said.
Judge cites Trump's return to White House as rationale for unconditional discharge sentence
Judge Juan Merchan laid out his rationale for imposing the sentence of unconditional discharge on the president-elect.
“The protections afforded the office of the president are not a mitigating factor. They do not reduce the seriousness of the crime or justify its commission in any way,” the judge said.
“The protections are, however, a legal mandate which, pursuant to the rule of law, this court must respect and follow. However, despite the extraordinary breadth of those protections, one power they do not provide is the power to erase a jury verdict.”
He then handed down his sentence, noting that it is influenced by Trump’s recent presidential election victory:
It was the citizenry of this nation that recently decided that once again you should have the benefits of those protections which include, among other things, the supremacy clause and presidential immunity. It is through that lens and that reality that this court must determine a lawful sentence.
This court has determined that the only lawful sentence that permits entry of judgment of conviction, without encroaching on the highest office of the land is unconditional discharge.
Therefore, at this time, I impose that sentence to cover all 34 counts.
Merchan concluded with: “Sir, I wish you godspeed as you assume your second term in office.”
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Judge sentences Trump to unconditional discharge, allowing president-elect to avoid jail time, fines or probation
Judge Juan Merchan has sentenced Donald Trump to unconditional discharge in the hush money case, meaning he will avoid jail time, fines or probation.
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“The task is always difficult and deserving of careful consideration – whether the sentence be unconditional discharge or incarceration of 25 years to life,” Merchan began, speaking generally about the challenges and considerations of sentencing a defendant.
“One can argue that the trial was in many respects somewhat ordinary,” Merchan said of how proceedings unfolded, but “the same cannot be said about the circumstances around this sentencing.”
The judge added:
To be sure, it is the legal protections afforded to the office of the president of the United States that are extraordinary – not the occupant of the office.
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Trump also claimed that the justice department is involved in the New York case, which is not true.
Manhattan district attorney Alvin Bragg brought the charges against Trump.
The president-elect concluded by saying, “I was treated very, very unfairly” and told Merchan, “Thank you very much.”
Now that Trump is done, the judge is explaining the process behind how a sentence is imposed.
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Trump continued to attack the substance of the case against him.
“I get indicted for business records? Everybody should be so accurate. It’s been a political witch hunt ... to damage my reputation so that I’d lose the election, obviously that didn’t work,” Trump continued.
He went on to recount how he had won the November election, noting that he had carried every swing state and the popular vote.
“I was under a gag order, I’m the first pesident in history [under] a gag order,” Trump said. “I assume that I’m still under a gag order but the fact is I’m totally innocent, I did nothing wrong.”
The gag order has been a long-running issue in this case, and was imposed on Trump by Merchan after he began attacking various parties to the proceedings. Here’s more about it:
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Trump calls hush money case 'a very terrible experience' at sentencing hearing
Donald Trump addressed the court about his conviction on business fraud charges, speaking to judge Juan Merchan:
This has been a very terrible experience. I think it’s been a tremendous setback for New York, the New York court system. This is a case that Alvin Bragg did not want to bring … from what I read and what I hear, inappropriately handled before he got there.
I called a legal fee a legal expense and for this, I got indicted. It’s incredible, actually.
“They all said this case that should have never been brought, it’s an injustice,” Trump said, referring to claims that legal scholars thought the Manhattan district attorney’s case was lacking.
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Trump’s lawyer Todd Blanche is now speaking now.
“Legally, this case should not have been brought,” he began. “The majority of the American people also agreed that this case should not have been brought.”
Blanche continued:
The interesting thing was that the fact there was a trial, the first time in our history, the first time in an election season, the American voters got to see and decide for themselves whether this was the case that should have been brought and they decided. And that’s why, in 10 days, president Trump will assume the office of POTUS.
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Trump, Steinglass noted, “threatened to retaliate” against the court and prosecution.
“Such threats are designed to have a chilling affect to intimidate those who have a responsibility to enforce our laws in the hopes that they will ignore the defendant’s transgressions, because they fear he is simply too powerful to be subjected to the same rule of law as the rest of us,” the prosecutor said.
“This defendant has caused enduring damage to public perception of the criminal justice system and has placed officers and court in harms’ way,” Steinglass added.
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We’re at the part of sentencing when both prosecution and defense are going to state their respective positions on what they believe his sentence should be.
Prosecutor Joshua Steinglass, addressing the court, noted that Donald Trump has been found guilty of 34 felonies, but said that prosecutors would support a sentence of unconditional discharge given the practical issues at play: Trump is going to be president in less than two weeks.
Although the prosecution is not pushing for incarceration or fines, Steinglass went through the threat that Trump’s behavior has played to the US.
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In front of the courthouse, around 15 anti-Trump protesters are gathered along with about 20 Trump supporters.
In the park across the street from the courthouse, a Trump supporter has unveiled a huge flag reading “Trump won trifecta”.
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We’re getting formalities out of the way.
Both sides were provided copies of the probation report. When a defendant gets sentenced, officials prepare reports that assess the crimes and character of the defendant, to determine factors such as risk of re-offending, which judges then use in determining punishment.
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Trump’s sentencing begins
Judge Juan Merchan has taken the bench, and Donald Trump’s sentencing in his hush money case is now beginning.
The New York state supreme court judge is not expect to sentence the president-elect to jail, fines or probation over his conviction last year on 34 felony charges related covering up a hush money payment made to an adult film actor before the 2016 election.
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Trump appears for sentencing in hush money case
Donald Trump is appearing by video at his sentencing hearing, and is now onscreen next to his lawyer Todd Blanche.
They are in front of an American flag or two – it’s hard to say because we’re straining to see a computer screen that’s about 20 feet away.
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Guardian US photographer Julius Constantine Motal is at the courthouse today documenting the scene there:
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Manhattan district attorney Alvin Bragg arrives for Donald Trump's sentencing
Manhattan district attorney Alvin Bragg, who has long been the target of Donald Trump’s ravings and rants, has entered the courtroom.
He is seated in the second row on the right side of the gallery.
We’re all waiting with bated breath to see Trump. There are four large flat-screen televisions set up for the audience to see him. Those screens now just feature “Standby” messages with a clock.
But, screens on the prosecution and defense tables – which are visible to anyone facing the front of the courtroom, including the gallery – are showing the feed already.
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The prosecution team has entered judge Juan Merchan’s courtroom, along with Emil Bove, a lawyer for Donald Trump.
Bove has taken a seat at the defense table.
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Trump supporter Qing Yang is here in front of the Manhattan courthouse, helping to hold up a banner that reads “Stop partisan conspiracy”.
“My whole family are American citizens. Donald Trump is my president. So many people made the choice, Trump is the winner,” she said.
Reporters have been ushered into the courtroom where, in less than an hour, Donald Trump is expected to appear via video link for his sentencing.
Courtroom sketch artists are seated in the jury box, preparing their pads and pens and pencils and pastels for the big moment. At present, the mood is unremarkable. Everyone is busy typing away at their laptops and trying to stay warm.
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One of the people in the group protesting against Donald Trump outside the courthouse today is Paul Rabin.
Rabin, who is holding a sign reading “fraud” with a photo of the president-elect, told the Guardian that he is here on this cold morning “because it just upsets me as a citizen that someone has lived their entire life with wealth, status and privilege and used it to evade justice”.
“It’s been proven in a court of law that he’s broken the law, and yet he’s been able to evade justice, and unfortunately, in our society, he has money, wealth, status and power, and that’s what gets you justice, or the opposite of justice,” Rabin said.
Today, Rabin said, the conviction will “be official” adding, “once it’s official in New York state, then he’s not just charged, he’s actually convicted.”
“And that actually does have some ramifications terms of his liquor licenses, for his properties, things like that,” he said. “Any little bit of justice is welcome.”
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Outside 100 centre street this morning, a group of around 20 anti-Trump protesters have gathered.
They are holding signs reading “Trump is guilty”, “fraud” and “34 felony convictions”, among others.
On the other side of the court building, there are three people holding a banner in support of Trump. It reads, “Stop partisan conspiracy”, “Stop political witch hunts”, “Stop DEM kangaroo court” and “Free trump Save America”.
Standing on the street are around 20 or so police officers, and barricades have been set up to separate the anti-Trump and pro-Trump protesters.
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The courthouse at 100 Centre Street in downtown Manhattan was busy with reporters hours before Donald Trump’s sentencing in his criminal hush money case.
Aside from queuing up in the cold outside, and the din of colleagues catching up with one another, there was little else of note. By the time we were ushered into the building around 8am, this reporter hadn’t seen any protesters or spectators gathered at the park across from court. We’re inside now, but waiting in line outside the courtroom.
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US supreme court to hear arguments over law that could lead to TikTok ban
Another big story to watch today is oral arguments before the supreme court over a recently passed law that requires TikTok’s China-based owner to sell its US operations by 19 January, or face a ban.
Republicans and Democrats alike worry the hugely popular social media app poses a national security threat over its owners’ ties to Beijing, the potential that it could be used to harvest data from Americans. Though Congress moved to pass the sell-or-ban law last year, Donald Trump now says he wants to keep TikTok available.
The ban may go into effect just before he is inaugurated, though supreme court could decide to put a stop to that. We’ll find out more when oral arguments commence at 10am. Here’s more on the case:
Donald Trump responded to the US supreme court’s rejection of his bid to delay his sentencing in a press conference with reporters on Thursday evening.
He called the sentencing a “disgrace” and said the judge presiding over the case, Juan Merchan “shouldn’t have been on the case”. He went on to call the supreme court’s ruling “fair”.
He added: “I’ll do my little thing tomorrow. They can have fun with their political opponent.”
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Reuters has written up a brief overview of the hush-money case:
Alvin Bragg, the Manhattan district attorney, charged Donald Trump in March 2023 with illegally falsifying business records to cover up an alleged affair with the pornographic film actor Stormy Daniels. A jury convicted him of 34 felony counts in May 2024. The judge overseeing the case indicated he does not plan to send Trump to prison. But by granting an unconditional discharge, he would place a judgment of guilt on Trump’s permanent record.
Trump has denied wrongdoing and has vowed to appeal. The conviction could be thrown out by an appeals court even after he is sentenced.
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Opening summary
Hello and welcome to our live coverage of Donald Trump’s sentencing in his New York hush-money trial.
Trump is due to officially assume to presidency in 10 days. He is the first US president – former or sitting – to face a criminal trial, let alone a guilty verdict and subsequent sentencing.
Despite being convicted on 34 felony charges, the judge presiding over the case, Juan Merchan, has strongly implied that the incoming president will not face any meaningful consequences.
Merchan has said that the most viable sentence seems to be “unconditional discharge”, which in New York means that the conviction holds, but a defendant will be released “without imprisonment, fine or probation supervision”.
Trump launched a last-minute bid to halt his sentencing after Merchan announced it would be going ahead last week but his appeals were rejected by the US supreme court.
On Thursday evening, Trump told reporters that the case was a “disgrace” but appeared to back the supreme court, calling their ruling a “fair decision, actually.”
The sentencing is due to take place at 9:30am ET (14:30pm UK time). Follow here for the latest updates.
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