‘unAmerican Witch Hunt’: Donald Trump hails ‘unconditional discharge’ in hush money case
Donald Trump, a Republican, lashed out at rival Democrats, saying, “The Radical Democrats have lost another pathetic, unAmerican Witch Hunt.”
US President Donald Trump was sentenced to no-punishment or 'unconditional discharge' in his historic hush money case. Trump hailed the verdict while calling the charges against him "baseless, illegal, and fake."
Trump, a Republican, lashed out at rival Democrats, saying, “The Radical Democrats have lost another pathetic, unAmerican Witch Hunt.”
The latest verdict is a rare case for felony convictions. The judgment allows Trump to return to the White House unencumbered by the threat of a jail term or a fine.
This means that Trump will not go to jail or face any other punishment for his criminal conviction stemming from hush money paid to a porn star, a judge ruled on Friday but said Trump's January 20 inauguration would not erase the jury verdict.
Trump will now be the first president to take office with a felony criminal conviction.
Here's how Trump reacted to his sentencing in hush money case:
In a long post on Truth Social platform, Donald Trump said, “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,” Trump said.
The US President-elect said the result – “‘unconditional discharge” – 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.”
He said, "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.,” Trump said.
He added, "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!"
A $130,000 PAYMENT
Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg, a Democrat, charged Trump, a Republican, in March 2023 with 34 counts of falsifying business records to cover up his former lawyer Michael Cohen's $130,000 payment to adult film star Stormy Daniels for her silence before the 2016 election about a sexual encounter she said she had with Trump, who denied it.
The Manhattan jury found Trump guilty of all 34 counts on May 30. Prosecutors argued that despite the tawdry nature of the allegations, the case was about an attempt to corrupt the 2016 election.
The hush money case was widely viewed as less serious than the three other criminal cases Trump faced, in which he was accused of trying to overturn his 2020 election loss and retaining classified documents after leaving the White House. Trump pleaded not guilty in all cases.
(With inputs from agencies)
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Business NewsNewsUs News‘unAmerican Witch Hunt’: Donald Trump hails ‘unconditional discharge’ in hush money case
First Published:11 Jan 2025, 10:20 AM IST
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