TRUMP’S REAL PUNISHMENT. President-elect Donald Trump was sentenced on Friday in the bookkeeping case brought against him by Alvin Bragg, the elected Democratic district attorney of Manhattan. The sentence was effectively nothing. Although Trump had been convicted of 34 felonies, Judge Juan Merchan sentenced him to what is called “unconditional discharge,” which means no jail time, no probation, and no fine or other punishment. 

The reason was practical. Merchan and Bragg would have been happy to send Trump to jail, but the fact that in 10 days the defendant will become president of the United States put Merchan and the prosecutors in a bind. They’re a county judge and county prosecutors. They had no authority to imprison the president, to put the president on probation, or to force the president to perform community service.