According to New York State law, an unconditional discharge means that Trump will have the felonies on his official record but will not face jail time, fines or probation for his actions. However, it does not mean that the President-elect has been exonerated, since that would mean finding he was not guilty of a crime.

Justice Juan Merchan’s sentence of unconditional discharge for Trump carries no jail time, probation or fines. Trump had faced up to four years in prison.

During the sentencing, Justice Juan Merchan said he was keenly aware of the unique set of circumstances before him and the country.

Here's what is means when a court grants an unconditional discharge, as happened with President-elect Donald Trump's hush money case Jan. 10.

President-elect Donald Trump will enter the White House this month as a felon, but will serve no jail time under a sentence handed down this morning in New York for his criminal conviction in a hush-money trial that angered him and his supporters but didn’t prevent him from reclaiming the presidency.

Donald Trump’s historic criminal conviction ended without penalty in a Manhattan courtroom Friday, as the president-elect was sentenced to an unconditional discharge for his conviction on felony charges that he paid hush money to an adult film actress to conceal their affair as he ran for president in 2016.

In the first test of how receptive the court may be to Trump, 4 of the court's 6 conservative members said they would have granted his emergency request.