Donald Trump was officially excused from sentencing on Friday in the case of hidden payments to a pornstar, a symbolic but historic sanction that makes him the first US President-elect to be criminally convicted.
Judge Juan Merchan delivered the ruling on Friday, more than seven months after being found guilty by a jury of 12 unanimous citizens in a Manhattan criminal court.
The jury had found Donald Trump guilty of 34 felony counts of accounting falsifications to conceal from voters the payment of $130,000 to pornstar Stormy Daniels at the end of his first victorious campaign in 2016 against Hillary Clinton. Daniels was paid the money to keep quiet about sexual relations she had with the incoming US President.
Appeals multiplied in the wake of Trump's electoral victory on 5 November, but the highest court in the US has now rejected a final appeal request by five votes to four.
At the close of the trial, the President-to-be denounced a "disgrace to the system", saying he was "totally innocent".
Judge Juan Merchan recalled the "unique and exceptional circumstances" of the situation. He then dispensed with the sentence, "the only sentence" possible in his eyes, and wished Donald Trump "good luck in your second term".
'Middle finger to justice'
Trump has escaped judicial consequences in the three other cases in which he had been indicted, but will now enter the White House as a convicted felon on 20 January.
"It's a middle finger [from Donald Trump] to the judge, the jury and justice," former New York prosecutor and Pace University law professor Bennett Gershman told AFP.
Outside the courtroom, Trump supporters held up a giant banner bearing his name. This was swept away by strong winds. There was also a handful of demonstrators hostile to the president-elect, holding a sign that read "Trump is guilty".
