United States President-elect Donald Trump has been sentenced to what’s known as an “unconditional discharge” for his conviction over hush-money payments made to an adult film actress, making him the first former US president ever sentenced for a crime.

Judge Juan Merchan delivered the decision on Friday, a day after the US Supreme Court rejected an attempt by Trump’s legal team to delay sentencing before the Republican leader’s inauguration on January 20.

An “unconditional discharge” means that Trump’s conviction will appear on his permanent record, but he does not face imprisonment, a fine, or probation — leaving him unencumbered to enter the White House.

Trump, who previously served as president from 2017 to 2021, was found guilty in late May on 34 counts of falsifying business documents related to hush-money payments made to Stormy Daniels, among other things.

The US president-elect has denied any wrongdoing and said he plans to appeal his conviction.

Appearing at Friday’s sentencing hearing virtually, Trump said his criminal trial and conviction had “been a very terrible experience” and insisted he committed no crime.

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“It’s been a political witch hunt,” he said before the judge issued his decision. “It was done to damage my reputation so I would lose the election and obviously that didn’t work.”

Prosecutors in the New York case had argued that the hush-money payments aimed to conceal allegations of a sexual relationship with Daniels that could have been politically damaging.

Trump, who pleaded not guilty, has denied any such relationship took place.

His lawyers had asked the Supreme Court for a stay of the sentencing “to prevent grave injustice and harm to the institution of the Presidency and the operations of the federal government”.

They argued that a ruling last year by the top court that grants presidents broad immunity from criminal prosecution means that some of the evidence should not have been presented in the case.

But a majority of the justices on the Supreme Court said in a decision late on Thursday that the “alleged evidentiary violations” at Trump’s state-court trial “can be addressed in the ordinary course on appeal”.

They also said that “the burden that sentencing will impose” on Trump’s responsibilities “is relatively insubstantial in light of the trial court’s stated intent to impose a sentence of ‘unconditional discharge’ after a brief virtual hearing”.

Under New York’s penal code, a court can sentence a defendant to unconditional discharge if it “is of the opinion that no proper purpose would be served by imposing any condition upon the defendant’s release”.