The court’s 5-4 decision Thursday to deny the president-elect’s last-minute effort to delay sentencing in his New York hush money case set up a stunning moment in court on Friday morning, just 10 days before Trump will be sworn in for a second term.

Friday’s punishment was largely symbolic, but it ensured that Donald J. Trump would become America’s first felon president.

Judge Juan Merchan imposed an "unconditional discharge” that means Trump receives no prison time or probation. Trump continues to appeal conviction.

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.

Donald Trump was sentenced without penalty in the New York hush money case Friday after a symbolic – and historic and unprecedented – hearing following the first felony conviction of a former and soon-to-be sitting president.

Jan. 10, 2025 at 2:00 p.m. ET

President-elect Donald Trump was formally sentenced Friday in his hush money case, but the judge declined to impose any punishment. The outcome cements Trump’s conviction while freeing him to return to the White House unencumbered by the threat of a jail term or a fine.

U.S. President-elect Donald Trump will not go to jail or pay a fine over his criminal conviction stemming from hush money paid to a porn star, but the sentence imposed by a judge on Friday places a judgment of guilt on his record.