President-elect Donald Trump was handed an “unconditional discharge” in a felony case in New York, where he was earlier found guilty on 34 counts of falsifying business records to make $1,30,000 in hush-money payments to an adult films star over an alleged affair. Following his conviction last May, one of four criminal indictments that he faced at the time, Mr. Trump went on to win the November 2024 election and will be sworn into office on January 20. In accordance with the legal immunity for official acts that is offered to the office of the President of the U.S., a position affirmed recently by the Supreme Court, three indictments that had not yet reached the stage of a conviction or acquittal were either dismissed or came to a halt owing to procedural complexities. His indictment for his role in instigating a mob attack on the U.S. Capitol in January 2021 and his indictment for mishandling classified documents discovered at his home in Florida, after his 2020 election defeat, were withdrawn by then Special Counsel Jack Smith because the Department of Justice “forbids the federal indictment and subsequent criminal prosecution of a sitting President”. A state-level case in Georgia relating to allegations of tampering with the 2020 election’s vote-counting process was paused pending a decision by an appeals court. In the New York case, following his appeal to delay the sentencing, the Supreme Court ruled that sentencing could proceed after the judge, Juan Merchan, said that he would hand down an unconditional discharge — implying no jail time, monetary fine, or probation — given that this would be “the most viable solution” in such unprecedented circumstances.
Other than facing the routine conditions of a ban on convicted felons owning guns and being required to provide the State of New York criminal database with a DNA sample, Mr. Trump has emerged unscathed from the legal quagmire prior to his 2024 victory. The deeper questions that America will wrestle with, however, transcend these legal minutiae — they relate to the fact that Mr. Trump, his 2024 campaign, and the MAGA movement more broadly, remain polarising and there is near-complete breakdown of bipartisanship within political circles as applicable to critical issues of social and economic policy, including the economy and jobs, reproductive rights, the criminal justice system and immigration reform. Liberal and progressive Americans must, understandably, be hoping, in the light of his comprehensive victory leading to a federal government trifecta, that Mr. Trump will strike a conciliatory note on Inauguration Day, and follow that up with a more bipartisan approach to policymaking in the four years ahead. The cost of not doing so appears to be high indeed.
Published – January 14, 2025 12:10 am IST
