Excerpts from the judge’s ruling to go ahead with Trump sentencing Boston 25 News [Video]

NEW YORK — (AP) — The judge overseeing Donald Trump’s hush money case in New York dealt with a host of weighty, unprecedented questions before deciding Friday that the president-elect should be sentenced later this month for the crime of falsifying business records.

In an 18-page legal opinion, Judge Juan Merchan laid out his reasoning for the ruling. His most important finding was that Trump’s conviction should not be thrown out simply because he was elected president.

“Indeed, the sanctity of a jury verdict and the deference that must be accorded to it, is a bedrock principle in our Nation’s jurisprudence,” Merchan wrote.

But the judge also signaled that he intended to impose a sentence of “unconditional discharge,” which means Trump would not face any punishment beyond having the conviction on his legal record.

Trump’s spokesperson said after Merchan’s ruling that the president-elect would continue to fight against the case, which he called a hoax.

Here are some key excerpts from the judge’s decision:

A president-elect is not immune from prosecution

“The …