William Brangham:
I mean, Amna, on one hand, this wasn’t a surprise. The judge had telegraphed this in a memo earlier.
But, yes, this is a relatively rare situation, to have a defendant convicted of 34 felony convictions and face no jail time, no penalties, no fines, no probation. Merchan, in describing today, said that, on one hand, this was a trial that was very ordinary. It unfolded in an ordinary way. Jury was selected. Judges — I mean, the lawyers gave their arguments. Witnesses were heard. A verdict was reached.
But, he said, because of the defendant, this was an extraordinary trial, and sentencing him would be the same. Merchan said that, if Donald Trump had been a regular citizen, a regular defendant, that he would have likely have faced much harsher punishment for those crimes.
But because Donald Trump is about to become president of the United States again, that comes with the enormous protections, the judge said. Those are granted by the Constitution, many other courts, and most recently interpreted again by the Supreme Court last year.
So Merchan argued this was the only course he could really take. But he did say those protections given to the president do not excuse the underlying crime. Let’s hear a little bit of what he said today.
