US President-elect Donald Trump to be sentenced in ‘Hush Money’ case on Jan 10, says NY judge

The New York judge Juan Merchan presiding over President-elect Donald Trump’s ‘Hush Money’ case on Jan 4 said that he will be sentenced on Jan 10, just days before he is set to assume the president’s office.

Merchan, in an 18-page decision, said that Trump would be given a conditional discharge which would dismiss his case if he avoids being re-arrested.

The judge said that Trump can either attend the sentencing in person or virtually.

"It seems proper at this juncture to make known the Court's inclination to not impose any sentence of incarceration...Prosecutors did not believe a jail term was a practicable recommendation," Merchan said.

The 78-year-old, who will be assuming president’s office for a second time, was initially scheduled to be sentenced on Nov 26 but Justice Juan Merchan pushed it back indefinitely after he won the Nov 5 US Presidential election.

In a 41-page decision, Justice Merchan said Trump's “decidedly personal acts of falsifying business records poses no danger of intrusion on the authority and function of the executive branch.”

Last year in May, Trump was found guilty of 34 counts of falsifying business records to cover up the payment to adult film star Stormy Daniels.

She claimed that the money was paid to her to not disclose her alleged affair with the former President during the 2016 election campaign.

The conviction makes Trump the first ever US president - former or sitting to have been convicted or charged with a criminal offense.

While the sentencing will not give Trump a jail term, the Republican leader will enter the White House as a convicted felon.

"It seems proper at this juncture to make known the Court's inclination to not impose any sentence of incarceration," the judge said, highlighting that prosecutors did not believe imprisonment was a "practicable recommendation."