judge juan mershon explained his remarks, saying it was the only lawful sentence he couldn't producempose without encroaching on donald trump's role as president. he wished the president godspeed in his second term. the sentencing hearing marks the culmination of a historic criminal trial, the first one ever brought against a sitting or former president. because it was a state case with a verdict, donald trump could not get it stopped like the other cases against him. trump says he plans to appeal. he spoke in court and repeated his claims that the case was politically motivated. in the end, enough voters did not feel it was disqualifying, and he will be sworn in as president on january 20. caitriona: let's talk about some of the issues raised by today's developments. we are joined by a former u.s. prosecutor. thanks for being with us on bbc news. this unconditional discharge, many people have not heard of that before. how often is it handed down of a sentencing hearing? >> it is very uncommon, but this is not an ordinary case. an unconditional discharge means there was no substantiv

it's been a while, but you might remember a guy named juan mershon. he's the manhattan judge overseeing donald trump's trial in new york, featuring dozens of bizarre paperwork charges from a supposed crime with no victims. but after the supreme court ruled that presidents are immune from prosecution for official actions, trump asked merchan to dismiss the case altogether. naturally, the liberal manhattan judge said no. not only is he keeping the guilty verdict intact, merchan also announced that he will be sentencing trump on january 10th, less than two weeks before the inauguration, though he did make it clear that trump is not facing any jail time. in an exclusive interview with fox news digital, trump called merchan, quote, the most conflicted judge in the history of jurisprudence and said the judge is clearly working on behalf of the democrats since their other witch hunts have failed. here now with reaction are fox news legal analyst gregg jarrett and former harvard law professor alan dershowitz. gentlemen, thank you so much for joining us both.