I can not bring myself to use the word “solomonic”, but the thoughtful sentence of Justice Juan Merchan made the best of a bad situation and was a step in upholding the Rule of Law. Despite Trump’s desperate attempts to freeze or postpone this sentence by motions to the appellate courts, as late as last night, a sentence was imposed on Donald Trump this morning on his 38 counts of conviction arising out of his hush money payments before he was first elected President. Trump fought to stop the sentencing because in the criminal practice a conviction is not final until after a sentencing. There is always the right to an appeal, but as of now Donald Trump in the eyes of the law is a convicted felon.

Although many will be unhappy that Trump did not receive jail time or probation, truth be told as a 78–year-old first offender in a non-violent crime he may not have been given incarceration anyway. I believe Justice Merchan had to announce in advance that he would impose an “unconditional discharge” sentence of no prison, no fine or no probation, or there was a high likelihood that the United States Supreme Court would have blocked the sentence last evening when they ultimately denied the stay of the sentence.

Consider what an insult a non-sentence would have been to the people who served on the grand jury, the witnesses and the people who served on the jury. Consider the blow to the taxpayers for the costs of the trial and the security if there was no closure. The fact of an uncompleted criminal trial would have been a cruel joke. Imperfect closure is all that was achieved, but it was still points on the board for justice.