He rejected the Trump team’s request to dismiss the conviction but signaled that he would give him what is called an unconditional discharge where the conviction stands, but the case is closed and the defendant is not given jail time, a fine, or probation.

“Indeed, the sanctity of a jury verdict and the deference that must be accorded to it, is a bedrock principle in our Nation’s jurisprudence,” the judge said in his announcement.

“The Constitution dictates that only a President, after taking the oath of office, has the authority of the Chief Executive, a President-elect does not. Accordingly, a President-elect is not permitted to avail himself of the protections afforded to the individual occupying that Office. … Binding precedent does not provide that an individual, upon becoming President, can retroactively dismiss or vacate prior criminal acts, nor does it grant blanket Presidential-elect immunity,” he said.

“Any claim Defendant may have that circumstances have changed as a result of Defendant’s victory in the Presidential election, while convenient, is disingenuous. Defendant has always pronounced, since the inception of this case, confidence and indeed the expectation that he would prevail in the 2024 Election — confidence that has proven well-founded. That he would become the ‘President-elect’ and be required to assume all the responsibilities that come with the transition were entirely anticipated. Thus, it was fair for this Court to trust that his request to adjourn sentencing until after the election carried with it the implied consent that he would face sentence during the window between the election and the taking of the oath of office,” Merchan added.

“Here, 12 jurors unanimously found Defendant guilty of 34 counts of falsifying business records with the intent to defraud, which included an intent to commit or conceal a conspiracy to promote a presidential election by unlawful means. It was the premediated and continuous deception by the leader of the free world that is the gravamen of this offense. To vacate this verdict on the grounds that the charges are insufficiently serious given the position Defendant once held, and is about to assume again, would constitute a disproportionate result and cause immeasurable damage to the citizenry’s confidence in the Rule,” he said.

Trump himself responded to Merchan’s decision.

“I never falsified business records. It is a fake, made up charge by a corrupt judge who is just doing the work of the Biden/Harris Injustice Department, an attack on their political opponent, ME! He created a case where there was none. Keeps a ‘gag order’ on me so that I can’t talk about how crooked he is. The Fake News knows all about it, but they refuse to talk. He may be the most conflicted judge in New York State history,” he wrote on Truth Social.

“The accountant testified, with total corroboration, that the records were perfect & totally above board. A legal expense was called, on the books, a legal expense. There was nothing else it could have been called. This was the so-called falsifying of records. I was hiding nothing, everything was out in the open for all to see. Every legal scholar of note said there IS NO CASE AGAINST ME. The judge should be disbarred!”

He added: “In another crooked New York case, another corrupt Judge (overturned 5 times on my case alone, & the most overturned judge in New York!) valued Mar-a-Lago, in Palm Beach, Florida, at $18,000,000, when it is worth 50 to 100 times that amount….And then we have, also in New York, the woman I never met (celebrity photo lines from 30 years ago don’t count!), who was awarded almost $100,000,000. A totally out of control, Trump hating judge, presided. The Biden/Harris DOJ was involved, directly or indirectly, in each of these cases. I won against Deranged Jack Smith!”