Is Trump a Felon? Conviction, Unconditional Discharge, and Appeal

Yes, Donald Trump is a felon. On May 30, 2024, a Manhattan jury convicted him on all 34 counts of falsifying business records in the first degree, making him the first former or sitting U.S. president to be convicted of a felony.¹² He was sentenced on January 10, 2025, to an unconditional discharge, which leaves the conviction on his record but imposes no jail time, probation, or fine.³ He is appealing the verdict while serving his second term as president.

What He Was Convicted Of

Each of the 34 counts charged a violation of New York Penal Law § 175.10. Falsifying business records is normally a misdemeanor in New York; it becomes a class E felony when the falsification is done with intent to commit or conceal another crime.⁴ Prosecutors identified that other crime as a conspiracy to promote Trump’s 2016 election through unlawful means, including federal campaign finance violations and state tax fraud.⁵

The 34 records were 11 invoices, 12 ledger entries, and 11 checks documenting $420,000 in payments from the Trump Organization to Michael Cohen, his former personal attorney.⁶ Each was recorded as payment for legal services under a retainer that did not exist.¹ The money reimbursed Cohen for a $130,000 hush-money payment he made to adult film actress Stormy Daniels shortly before the 2016 election to keep her from publicly discussing an alleged sexual encounter with Trump. The rest of the $420,000 covered a separate $50,000 payment to a technology company, a $60,000 bonus, and money to offset Cohen’s tax liability.⁷

Prosecutors described the payment as one piece of a “catch and kill” arrangement developed at a 2015 meeting between Trump, Cohen, and David Pecker, then the head of American Media Inc., publisher of the National Enquirer. The plan was to identify and suppress unflattering stories about Trump before the election.¹ The jury returned a unanimous verdict of guilty on every count.⁶

The Sentence: Unconditional Discharge

Sentencing was delayed several times as Trump raised constitutional objections, including claims of presidential immunity and Supremacy Clause protections. Justice Juan Merchan rejected them, ruling that presidential immunity does not extend to a president-elect and that no legal doctrine required dismissal.⁸ Ten days before Trump’s inauguration, on January 10, 2025, Merchan imposed an unconditional discharge on all 34 counts.

Under New York law, an unconditional discharge finalizes the conviction but imposes no punishment. No prison. No probation. No fine. No community service.⁹ Merchan said the sentence was “the most viable solution to ensure finality” while avoiding “encroachment on the highest office of the land.”¹⁰ The conviction is on the record; the punishment is nothing.

How a Convicted Felon Became President

The Constitution sets only three qualifications for the presidency: natural-born citizenship, an age of at least 35, and 14 years of U.S. residency. A criminal record is not a disqualifier.¹¹ There is even historical precedent for a campaign from behind bars: in 1920, Eugene V. Debs ran for president as the Socialist Party nominee while imprisoned under the Sedition Act and drew roughly 915,000 votes.¹² No major-party nominee had ever run with a felony conviction before Trump, and none had won.

Trump won the November 5, 2024, election with 312 electoral votes to Kamala Harris’s 226 and carried the popular vote by about 2.3 million ballots.¹³ Research published in 2026 in Political Science Research and Methods found the conviction had “virtually no effect” on his supporters’ vote choices, even among those who had earlier said their support was contingent on acquittal.¹⁴

What the Conviction Actually Costs Him

Federal law bars anyone convicted of a felony from possessing firearms or ammunition.¹⁵ Whether that prohibition is being enforced against a sitting president is unclear.

His voting rights are intact. Trump is a Florida resident, and Florida disenfranchises voters convicted out of state only if the conviction would strip voting rights in the state where it was imposed.¹⁶ New York removes voting rights only from felons who are actively incarcerated.¹⁷ Trump was never incarcerated, so he can still vote.

He cannot pardon himself out of the conviction. The presidential pardon power under Article II covers only federal offenses, not state crimes.¹⁸ The Department of Justice has also concluded that a president cannot pardon himself at all.¹⁹ The only clemency path would be a pardon from the governor of New York.

The Pending Appeal

Trump’s trial attorneys, Todd Blanche and Emil Bove, both joined the Department of Justice after the 2024 election, so he retained Sullivan & Cromwell for the appeal. The team is led by firm co-chair Robert Giuffra Jr. along with four other attorneys, all former Supreme Court clerks.²⁰

The formal appeal was filed on October 27, 2025, in the Appellate Division’s First Department. The 96-page brief argues the trial was “fatally marred” by improper evidence, errors by Judge Merchan, and a “convoluted legal theory” that stacked what the defense called time-barred misdemeanors into felonies.²¹ The brief also raises presidential immunity, citing the Supreme Court’s July 2024 ruling that presidents hold presumptive immunity for official acts.²²

A parallel effort is trying to move the case to federal court on the theory that some trial evidence involved Trump’s actions as president and should have been shielded by immunity. In November 2025, the Second U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals directed federal Judge Alvin Hellerstein to reconsider that request. Hellerstein held arguments in February 2026 and questioned why Trump waited until after his conviction and sentencing to seek federal jurisdiction.²³ The conviction remains in force while both efforts are pending.

The Other Criminal Cases Did Not Produce Convictions

Trump was indicted four times in total, but only the New York case reached a verdict. The other three ended without one:

The federal election interference case in Washington, D.C., charged Trump with four counts tied to efforts to overturn the 2020 election. Special Counsel Jack Smith dismissed it on November 25, 2024, citing longstanding DOJ policy against prosecuting a sitting president.²⁴
The federal classified documents case in Florida charged 40 counts, including under the Espionage Act. Judge Aileen Cannon dismissed it in July 2024, ruling the special counsel had been improperly appointed, and prosecutors abandoned it in November 2024.²⁴
The Georgia election interference case in Fulton County charged 13 counts, including racketeering. The Georgia Court of Appeals disqualified DA Fani Willis in December 2024 over her relationship with special prosecutor Nathan Wade, and the Georgia Supreme Court declined to hear her appeal in a 4-3 decision in September 2025. As of 2026, the Prosecuting Attorneys’ Council of Georgia is searching for a new prosecutor, and no trial date has been set.²⁵

The 34 New York counts are, for now, the entire basis of Trump’s felony status. Whether that status survives depends on the appeal.

1
Manhattan District Attorney’s Office. D.A. Bragg Announces 34-Count Felony Trial Conviction of Donald J. Trump
2
Stanford Law School. Stanford’s Robert Gordon on the History of Presidential Crimes and the Significance of the Trump Conviction
3
PBS NewsHour. Trump Was Sentenced to an Unconditional Discharge in His Hush Money Conviction
4
New York State Senate. New York Penal Law Section 175.10
5
Lawfare. Charting the Legal Theory Behind People v. Trump
6
NPR. Trump Trial Verdict
7
Politico. Cohen’s Testimony on the Repayment Arrangement
8
New York Courts. People v. Donald J. Trump, Clayton Decision
9
PBS NewsHour. Trump Was Sentenced to an Unconditional Discharge
10
Politico. Trump Unconditional Discharge Sentencing
11
Congressional Research Service. Can a Felon Be Elected President
12
NBC Washington. Presidential Qualifications Felony Crime Convictions
13
The American Presidency Project. 2024 Presidential Election Results
14
Cambridge University Press. Measuring the Effects of Campaign Events
15
Duke Center for Firearms Law. Trump’s Latest Executive Order on Firearms
16
Florida Division of Elections. Felon Voting Rights
17
Brennan Center for Justice. Can Trump Vote Now That He Has Felony Convictions
18
New York Times. Donald Trump Pardon Himself
19
Protect Democracy. The Presidential Pardon Power Explained
20
Politico. Trump New Lawyers for Hush Money Appeal
21
New York Times. Trump Hush Money Appeal
22
ABC News. Trump Formally Appeals New York Hush Money Conviction
23
Politico. Donald Trump Hush Money Conviction Federal Court Proceedings
24
The Guardian. Donald Trump Investigations Criminal Charges Tracker
25
Georgia Recorder. DA Fani Willis Loses Appeal in Quest to Lead Fulton County Election Interference Case Against Trump