Donald Trump, the President-elect of the United States, made headlines once again, this time for the unusual nature of his sentencing in the Manhattan hush money case.
After being convicted on 34 counts of falsifying business records linked to payments made during his 2016 campaign, Trump was handed an “unconditional discharge” by the court.
An unconditional discharge is a legal term that means a person has been convicted of a crime, but no penalties will be imposed.
This means no jail time, no probation, no community service, and no fines.
It’s essentially a resolution where the conviction remains on the individual’s criminal record, but they face no further legal consequences related to the case.
Unlike an expungement, which erases convictions, or conditional discharge, which comes with obligations like avoiding further legal trouble, an unconditional discharge leaves the conviction intact without additional penalties.
For Trump, this sentencing was highly unusual.
While unconditional discharges are sometimes used …