Night-time curfew imposed in fire-hit areas of Los Angeles
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This is the Global News Podcast from the BBC World Service. I'm Jackie Leonard, and in the early hours of Saturday, the 11th of January, these are our main stories. Donald Trump will become the first U.S. president with a criminal record after being sentenced for fraud. In a rambling statement to the court, he repeated his claim he is being persecuted by political opponents. Police in Los Angeles say they will rigorously enforce a curfew to prevent further looting of properties evacuated because of the wildfires. And Washington has increased its bounty on the Venezuelan president, Nicolás Maduro, on the day he was sworn into office. Also in this podcast. A violin that could go for as much as 18 million dollars.
The president-elect of the United States, Donald Trump, has become the first president to be criminally sentenced, but he won't face jail. The judge overseeing the case, Juan Merchan, imposed an unconditional discharge. Mr Trump was convicted last year of 34 counts of falsifying business records to cover up a sex scandal that threatened his 2016 presidential campaign. Mr Trump, who has always denied wrongdoing, appeared by video link from Florida. Before the judge delivered his sentence, Mr Trump was allowed to speak in his own defence. Here's part of what he had to say to the court in New York.
With all that's happening in our country today, with a city that's burning to the ground, one of our largest, most important cities burning to the ground, with With wars that are uncontrollably going on, with all of the problems of inflation and attacks on countries and all of the horrible things that are going on, I got indicted over calling a legal expense a legal expense. It was called a legal expense. I just want to say I think it's an embarrassment to New York.
Our correspondent, Neda Tawfiq, who's in New York, told us what happened in court.
This was a sentencing hearing that lasted about over a half an hour. And what we saw was both sides speaking, so beginning with the prosecution. And Joshua Steinglass from the Manhattan District's attorney's office said that he understood why the judge wanted to sentence Donald Trump immediately. in the way that he did. But he did say beyond kind of respect for the office of the presidency, he had real concerns with how Donald Trump conducted himself during the trial, saying that he has done lasting damage to the perception of the criminal justice system by continually attacking the judges and the system and just showing disdain overall. And then we heard Donald Trump, and there was a bit there that you played, but he also just spoke about how he was innocent, how he says he did nothing wrong and repeated the claims he made during the seven-week trial that the entire case was a political witch hunt. And he said that the voters had seen how he was treated, and that's why they voted to put him back in the White House.
And at that point, we then got to hear from Judge Juan Marchand, who really limited his remarks to explaining his decision. And what does an unconditional discharge actually mean? Yeah, it's really interesting because it's the most lenient sentence possible. Judge Juan Marchand really made a distinction between Donald Trump as a private citizen and the kind of powers that are afforded to the office of the presidency in this case. And ultimately, he said the only lawful sentence he could impose to not encroach on Trump's imminent role as president on the highest office of the land was unconditional discharge. And what it means is that Donald Trump's guilty verdict goes on his record, that the case is officially closed so that Donald Trump can appeal it. And that is important because anything but a sentence wouldn't have allowed Donald Trump to then be able to appeal. But crucially, what it means is that there is no punishment here, no jail time, no probation and no fine.
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