Judge Merchan Chews Up 7 Minutes Bemoaning That Trump’s Election Win Prevents Him From Imposing Harsher Sentence

Judge Juan Merchan spent seven minutes during Friday’s sentencing hearing bemoaning that President-elect Donald Trump’s election victory prevented him from imposing a sentence normally given to an “ordinary citizen.”

Merchan sentenced Trump to an unconditional discharge, which grants the president-elect with no fines, jail or probation time while formalizing his status as a convicted felon. During the hearing, Merchan stated that the alleged “extraordinary” legal protections handed to the president of the United States required him to hand down a minor sentence that Trump would allegedly not have received without being reelected.

“While one can argue that the trial itself was in many respects somewhat ordinary, the same cannot be said about the circumstances surrounding this sentencing and that is because of the office once occupied, and which you will soon occupy again,” Merchan told the president-elect. “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. The legal protections, especially within the context of a criminal prosecution, afforded to the office of the president have been laid out by our founders, the Constitution and most recently interpreted by the United States Supreme Court in the matter of Trump versus the United States, which was decided on July 1, 2024.”

“As with every other defendant in your position, it is my obligation to consider any and all aggravating and mitigating factors to inform my decision … The considerable, indeed, extraordinary legal protections afforded by the office of the chief executive, is a factor that overrides all others,” the judge continued.

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Merchan assured that the legal protections provided to the President of the United States are not a “mitigating factor” and thus do not “reduce the seriousness” of a crime committed. He further noted that Trump’s upcoming entry into the Oval Office does not grant him a dismissal of a jury verdict, and claimed that Trump has received “far-reaching protections” that would never be granted to an “ordinary” defendant.