CNN
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President-elect Donald Trump will not face legal sanctions for his conviction in the hush money case, a New York judge ruled on Friday.

However, Judge Juan Merchan upheld Trump’s conviction in the case and rejected the president-elect’s attempt to overturn the jury’s verdict based on his re-election in November. This ensures that Trump will be the first convicted felon to become president.

Merchan set sentencing for Jan. 10 but indicated the case was essentially closed. The trial comes 10 days before Trump takes office for a second term – a reminder of the importance his legal issues have played in his return to power in Washington.

Merchan noted Trump’s plans to appeal in his ruling, saying that imposing a penalty would bring “finality” to the case while allowing Trump to continue to appeal the ruling. Such an appeal will lack urgency because Trump will not face a penalty that could interfere with his duties as president.

“A judgment of unconditional dismissal appears to be the most practical solution to ensure finality and allow the defendant to exercise his appeal options,” Merchan wrote.

The judge also said he would allow Trump to appear virtually for the sentencing to allay the president-elect’s concerns about the “mental and physical demands during this transition period.”

“It was a smart move for Judge Merchan to announce in advance that he would not impose a sentence and would hold the trial remotely, because it undermines any efforts by Trump’s team to argue in federal court that the conviction is a significant burden “Elie Honig, senior legal analyst at CNN, said.

In his ruling Friday, Merchan repeatedly referenced internal U.S. Justice Department opinions — which are not binding in court but have been applied to federal government conduct — that say a sitting president cannot be prosecuted. He said he had taken into account the points the DOJ made in those opinions and that Trump made in his arguments before the New York court. and that he found that these concerns did not justify a stay of judgment.

Trump was found guilty in May on 34 counts of falsifying business records for making payments to his then-lawyer Michael Cohen to return a $130,000 hush-money payment to adult film star Stormy Daniels to stop her from to talk about an alleged affair before the 2016 election. (Trump has denied the affair.)

Trump’s sentencing was scheduled for July but was postponed twice due to the Supreme Court’s immunity ruling.

Trump’s lawyers initially pushed to dismiss Trump’s conviction based on the Supreme Court’s ruling on presidential immunity, arguing that prosecutors relied on evidence from Trump’s official conduct in the White House. After the election, Trump’s lawyers filed a new motion to dismiss the case, arguing that his status as president was a “legal bar” to further criminal proceedings based on both the Supreme Court’s doctrine of presidential immunity and the Constitution’s Supremacy Clause Federal law takes precedence over state law.

Last month, Merchan said the conviction should not be overturned because of the Supreme Court’s July ruling. In that decision, Merchan said that the Supreme Court’s ruling that Trump should receive broad immunity for official acts while in office did not mean that the conviction should be overturned, and ruled that the evidence presented by the Manhattan district attorney’s office was inconsistent with that of Trump would be related to official behavior as president.

Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg had argued that Trump’s conviction should be upheld. The district attorney’s office said in court filings that the sentence could be delayed or modified because of Trump’s re-election, but that overturning the jury’s conviction would be an “extreme measure” that would be unwarranted. A spokesman for the office declined to comment Friday.

Trump spokesman Steven Cheung called Friday’s ruling a “direct violation” of the Supreme Court’s immunity ruling.

“President Trump must be able to continue the presidential transition process and carry out the vital duties of the presidency without being hampered by the remnants of these or any remnants of the witch hunts.” There should be no condemnation, and President Trump will continue to oppose this “Fake news fights until they’re all dead,” Cheung said.

This story has been updated with additional developments.