U.S. Court Convicts Trump...Sentencing 'unconditional release'

A U.S. court has sentenced U.S. President-elect Trump to "unconditional release" at a sentencing hearing, confirming that he is guilty of being put on trial for a "sexual scandal gag payment case," but without any punishment.

The Manhattan Criminal Court, New York's first trial court, sentenced Trump, who was accused of manipulating accounting records and paying gag money to prevent revelations of sexual intercourse with adult movie actors.

Judge Juan Merchant did not accept Trump's demand that the sentence itself be not handed down, thus formalizing the jury's "guilty verdict" as a "guilty verdict" but choosing not to punish it in practice.

Trump participated in the trial non-face-to-face at his Mar-a-Lago home, and Judge Merchant said the scope of legal protections he receives as president was extraordinary, but this did not eliminate the jury's verdict.

Ahead of his inauguration on the 20th, Trump used all legal means to prevent him from being branded the first president in U.S. history to be convicted of a felony, but failed to block the sentence.