The president-elect’s sentencing is scheduled for January 10, though it will almost certainly be appealed.

President-elect Donald Trump will almost certain to be the first felon to serve as U.S. president following a ruling on Friday by New York Supreme Court Justice Juan Merchan.

Weeks before Trump is set to take office, Merchan upheld Trump’s criminal conviction of 34 counts of falsifying business records in the case involving efforts to conceal a hush-money payment to adult film star Stormy Daniels during the 2016 election cycle.

The Republican president-elect had filed a motion to dismiss the indictment and vacate the guilty verdict that was reached by a jury in May.

Merchan scheduled Trump’s sentencing for January 10, just 10 days before his inauguration.

Merchan signaled in his ruling that he is not inclined to sentence the Republican president-elect to prison. The conviction carries up to four years in prison.

Instead, Merchan is expected to grant Trump an “unconditional discharge” of his sentence, according to The New York Times, which cements his status as a felon but allows him to walk free.

The Manhattan district attorney had proposed the possibility of postponing Trump’s sentencing until after his second presidential term ends in 2029.

His sentencing was originally set for July but was postponed after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that presidents enjoy “absolute immunity” for “official acts” taken while in office. That ruling was related to a separate indictment of Trump regarding his attempts to overturn the 2020 election.

Trump is expected to ask an appeals court to intervene and postpone the January 10 sentencing.

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