US President-elect Donald Trump will not go to jail or face any other punishment for his criminal conviction stemming from hush money paid to a porn star, a judge ruled on Friday.
The sentence of unconditional discharge places a judgment of guilt on Mr Trump’s record and closes a case that had loomed over his bid to retake the White House.
Mr Trump will be the first president to take office with a felony criminal conviction.
Justice Juan Merchan said he was imposing the sentence sparing Mr Trump jail, a fine or probation because the US Constitution shields presidents from criminal prosecution.
But he said the protections afforded to the office “do not reduce the seriousness of a crime or justify its commission in any way.”
“The considerable, indeed extraordinary, legal protection afforded by the office of the chief executive is a factor that overrides all others,” Justice Merchan said.
“Despite the extraordinary breadth of those protections, one power they do not provide is the power to erase jury verdicts.”
Mr Trump pleaded not guilty and has vowed to appeal the guilty verdict.
Appearing with his lawyer on TV screens beamed to the courtroom with two American flags in the background, Mr Trump called the case an unsuccessful attempt to thwart his re-election campaign.
“This has been a very terrible experience,” he said before sentencing.
“I’m totally innocent, I did nothing wrong.”
The hush money case accused Mr Trump of fudging his business’ records to conceal a $130,000 payoff to porn actor Stormy Daniels.
It was claimed that she was paid, late in Trump’s 2016 campaign, not to tell the public about a sexual encounter she maintains the two had a decade earlier.
Mr Trump says nothing sexual happened between them and claims the case was an attempt by his political enemies to damage him.