Photograph by Nathaniel St. Clair

On January 10, US president-elect Donald Trump officially became a convicted felon as New York judge Juan Merchan sentenced him on 34 counts of falsifying business records to disguise “hush money” payments to porn star Stormy Daniels as legal expenses.

The sentencing followed a 5-4 Supreme Court rejection of Trump’s request that it intervene to postpone the sentencing. That the vote went 5-4 instead of 9-0 constitutes a far greater scandal than anything Trump stands convicted of.

Most elements of the case against Trump — the payments to Daniels before he was elected in 2016, and the charges and trial after he left office in 2021 — relate to periods of........

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