'Justice failed us': Legal experts thrash Trump's no-punishment sentence

President-elect Donald Trump was handed an unconditional discharge sentence after he was convicted of falsifying business records to coverup a past affair with an adult film star, and many critics are crying foul.

The sentence handed down by Judge Juan Merchan to Trump means that he will not face jail time nor will he be forced to pay a fine for his crimes.

The fact that Trump got no real punishment despite being a convicted felon angered many legal experts and political observers who declared it an indictment of the American justice system.

"Sentencing Trump to an unconditional discharge means that yes, he can basically shoot somebody on Fifth Avenue and get away with it," wrote Democratic attorney Adam Cohen on BlueSky. "It means that -- if you’re rich and powerful enough -- you can get away with anything It means the American justice system has utterly failed us."

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Attorney Marc Elis criticized prosecutors at the Manhattan District Attorney's Office for caving and asking for an unconditional discharge instead of a real punishment.

"Everyone is acting like a sentence if unconditional discharge is normal or that prosecutors asking for that doesn't also cause 'damage to the public perception of the criminal justice system,'" he complained.

Attorney Sheryl Weikal used the Trump sentence to highlight disparities in the American criminal justice system.

"Huh gee I've *never* had a prosecutor recommend, or a judge issue, a sentence of Unconditional discharge to any of my clients," she commented on BlueSky.

Cato Institute scholar Andy Craig marveled that, as a convicted felon, Trump now "isn't legally allowed to own a gun" but will nonetheless be "given nuclear weapons" in just ten days.

Historian Eric Rauchway tried his best to make light of the Trump sentence and joked on BlueSky that "If you experience 'unconditional discharge' see a doctor."

Mary Trump, the president-elect's niece and longtime critic, was not in the mood for humor, however, and simply wrote on X, "SMDH."