Excerpts from President-elect Donald Trump’s sentencing
By The Associated Press
NEW YORK (AP) — President-elect Donald Trump spoke for six minutes. The judge talked for seven. In the end, the first criminal court sentencing of a former or future president took little more than half an hour.
Trump, appearing by video from his Palm Beach, Florida, home, received no punishment Friday for his conviction on 34 felony counts of falsifying business records. The charges related to payments Trump’s company made to a lawyer, Michael Cohen, to reimburse him for paying off porn actor Stormy Daniels during Trump’s 2016 Republican presidential campaign.
A Manhattan prosecutor and one of Trump’s defense lawyers also spoke before Judge Juan M. Merchan issued the sentence, which is known as an unconditional discharge.
Here are some key excerpts from the proceeding:
President-elect Donald Trump
“This has been a very terrible experience. I think it’s been a tremendous setback for New York and the New York court system. … I think it’s an embarrassment to New York, and New York has a lot of problems, but this is a great embarrassment.”
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“The falsification of business records, as they said, was calling a legal expense — in the books where everybody could see them — a legal expense. In other words, that legal fees or a legal expense were put down as ‘legal expense’ by accountants. They weren’t put down by me. They were put down by accountants. I didn’t call them construction, concrete work. I didn’t call them electrical work. I didn’t call them anything. They called a legal fee or a legal expense, a legal expense. And for this I got indicted. It’s incredible, actually.”
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“I get indicted for business records. Everybody should be so accurate. It’s been a political witch hunt. It was done to damage my reputation so that I’d lose the election. And obviously that didn’t work. And the people of our country got to see this firsthand because they watched the case in your courtroom. And then they voted, and I won.”
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“The people of this country understand what’s gone on. This has been a weaponization of government. They call it lawfare. Never happened to any extent like this, but never happened in our country before. And I just like to explain that I was treated very, very unfairly. And I thank you very much.”
Judge Juan M. Merchan
“Never before has this court been presented with such a unique and remarkable set of circumstances. Indeed, it can be viewed fairly that this has been a truly extraordinary case. … And yet the trial was a bit of a paradox, because once the courtroom doors were closed, the trial itself was no more special, unique or extraordinary than the other 32 criminal trials that took place in this courthouse at the same exact time.”
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“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 … one power they do not provide is the power to erase a jury verdict. It is clear from legal precedent … that Donald Trump, the ordinary citizen, Donald Trump, the criminal defendant, would not be entitled to such considerable protections.”
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“This court has determined that the only lawful sentence that permits entry of a judgment of conviction without encroaching upon the highest office in the land is an unconditional discharge. … Therefore, at this time, I impose that sentence to cover all 34 counts. Sir, I wish you Godspeed as you assume your second term in office. Thank you.”
Assistant District Attorney Joshua Steinglass
“The verdict in this case was unanimous and decisive. And it must be respected.”
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“Instead of preserving, protecting and defending our constitutionally established system of criminal justice, the defendant — the once and future president of the United States — has engaged in a coordinated campaign to undermine its legitimacy. Far from expressing any kind of remorse for his criminal conduct, the defendant has purposefully bred disdain for our judicial institutions and the rule of law. … Put simply, this defendant has caused enduring damage to public perception of the criminal justice system and has placed officers of the court in harm’s way.”
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“But in this case, we must be respectful of the office of the presidency and mindful of the fact that the defendant will be inaugurated as president in 10 days. … As a practical matter, the most sensible sentence prior to his inauguration is an unconditional discharge.”
Defense lawyer Todd Blanche
“American voters got a chance to see and decide for themselves whether this is the kind of case that should have been brought. And they decided. And that’s why, in 10 days, President Trump is going to assume the office of the president of the United States.”
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“It’s a very sad day. It’s a sad day for President Trump and his family and friends. But it’s also, in counsel’s view, a sad day for this country. … I know that President Trump shares this view that this will never happen again in this country.”
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“We very much intend on pursuing an appeal of this verdict and what happened during this investigation. And we certainly believe that the only appropriate sentence, if one is to be imposed at all — which we very much believe it shouldn’t be, and that the case should be dismissed — is a sentence of an unconditional discharge.”