New York state judge Juan Merchan made a decision in the case of payments made by US President-elect Donald Trump to porn actress Stormy Daniels and ordered her unconditional release, reports CNN.
The sentence means that Trump will face a conviction but no jail time or a fine. and he and his lawyer were in Florida. After the court's decision, Trump said he had been treated "very, very unfairly" and called the case against him a "political witch hunt."
"This is a non-existent case that not only has no statute of limitations, but should never have been filed. "This is an illegal political attack," he wrote on his social network.
This is the only one of Trump's remaining criminal cases that has reached a verdict. The illegal possession of classified documents case was dismissed in July 2024, and the 2021 Capitol attack case was dismissed in November. Another case related to the attempt to block the ratification of the results of the 2020 presidential election in Georgia has been suspended due to the disqualification of prosecutor Fanny Willis. Trump still has a chance to appeal the payment case.
Trump was accused of falsifying documents to hide $130,000 in payments to porn actress Stormy Daniels. She claimed that she and Trump had sex in 2006 and that Trump's former lawyer Michael Cohen paid her to keep quiet. Trump himself denies any connection with Daniels.
In May 2024, a jury found Trump guilty of all 34 counts of falsifying business records. Sentencing was scheduled for July 11, but Judge Juan Mercan has postponed it several times, including in connection with Trump's election as president.
