Winnipeg Free Press

Winnipeg Free Press (Newspaper) - January 11, 2025, Winnipeg, Manitoba LEASING FOR NEW AND USED VEHICLES SCAN THE QR CODE TO START SHOPPING OR CALL (204) 663-6185 A2 ● WINNIPEGFREEPRESS.COM NEWS SATURDAY, JANUARY 11, 2025 VOL 154 NO 52 Winnipeg Free Press est 1872 / Winnipeg Tribune est 1890 2025 Winnipeg Free Press, a division of FP Canadian Newspapers Limited Partnership. Published six days a week in print and always online at 1355 Mountain Avenue, Winnipeg, Manitoba R2X 3B6, PH: 204-697-7000 CEO / MIKE POWER Editor / PAUL SAMYN Associate Editor Enterprise / SCOTT GIBBONS Associate Editor News / STACEY THIDRICKSON Associate Editor Digital News / WENDY SAWATZKY Director Photo and Multimedia / MIKE APORIUS NEWSMEDIA COUNCIL The Winnipeg Free Press is a member of the National Newsmedia Council, which is an independent organization established to determine acceptable journalistic practices and ethical behaviour. 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Call or email before 10 a.m. weekdays or 11 a.m. Saturday City: 204-697-7001 Outside Winnipeg: 1-800-542-8900 press 1 6:30 a.m. - 4 p.m. Monday-Friday.; 7 a.m. - noon Saturday; Closed Sunday TO SUBSCRIBE: 204-697-7001 Out of Winnipeg: 1-800-542-8900 fpcirc@freepress.mb.ca The Free Press receives support from the Local Journalism Initiative funded by the Government of Canada INSIDE Arts and Life D1 Books G1 Business B4 Careers B8 Celebrations D5 Classifieds E7 Comics I3-7 Community Voices A19 Destinations I1 Diversions G6-7,I8 Faith G5 Homes H1 Horoscope D5 Miss Lonelyhearts D5 Obituaries C1 Opinion A8-9 Sports E1 Television D7 Weather D8 49.8 F1 COLUMNISTS: Paul G. Thomas A9 Dan Lett B2 Niigaan Sinclair B2 Laura Rance B6 Joel Schlesinger B7 Tory McNally B8 Mike McIntyre/Ken Wiebe E2 Jerrad Peters E6 Shawna Forester Smith F4 Rebecca Chambers F6 Alison Gillmor F8 Ben Sigurdson D3 READER SERVICE ● GENERAL INQUIRIES 204-697-7000 Trump ducks punishment in hush money case N EW YORK — President-elect Donald Trump was sentenced Friday to no punishment in his historic hush money case, a judgment that lets him return to the White House unencumbered by the threat of a jail term or a fine. With Trump appearing by video from his Florida estate, the sentence quietly capped an extraordinary case rife with moments unthinkable in the U.S. only a few years ago. It was the first criminal prosecution and first conviction of a former U.S. president and major presidential can- didate. The New York case became the only one of Trump’s four criminal indictments that has gone to trial and possibly the only one that ever will. And the sentencing came 10 days before his inauguration for his second term. In roughly six minutes of remarks to the court, a calm but insistent Trump called the case “a weaponization of gov- ernment” and “an embarrassment to New York.” He maintained he did not commit any crime. “It’s been a political witch hunt. It was done to damage my reputation so that I would lose the election, and, ob- viously, that didn’t work,” the Republic- an president-elect said by video, with U.S. flags in the background. After the roughly half-hour proceed- ing, Trump said in a post on his social media network that the hearing had been a “despicable charade.” He reiter- ated that he would appeal his conviction. Manhattan Judge Juan M. Merchan could have sentenced the 78-year-old to up to four years in prison. Instead, he chose a sentence that sidestepped thorny constitutional issues by effectively end- ing the case but assured Trump will become the first president to take office with a felony conviction on his record. The no-penalty sentence, called an unconditional discharge, is rare for fel- ony convictions. The judge said he had to respect Trump’s upcoming legal pro- tections as president while also giving due consideration to the jury’s decision. “Despite the extraordinary breadth of those protections, one power they do not provide is the power to erase a jury verdict,” said Merchan, who had indicated ahead of time he planned the no-penalty sentence. As Merchan pronounced the sen- tence, Trump sat upright, lips pursed, frowning slightly. He tilted his head to the side as the judge wished him “god- speed in your second term in office.” Before the hearing, a handful of Trump supporters and critics gathered outside. One group held a banner that read, “Trump is guilty.” The other held one that said, “Stop partisan conspir- acy” and “Stop political witch hunt.” Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg, whose office brought the char- ges, is a Democrat. The norm-smashing case saw the for- mer and incoming president charged with 34 felony counts of falsifying busi- ness records, put on trial for almost two months and convicted by a jury on every count. Yet the legal detour — and sordid details aired in court of a plot to bury affair allegations — didn’t hurt him with voters, who elected him in November to a second term. Beside Trump as he appeared virtu- ally Friday from his Mar-a-Lago prop- erty was defence lawyer Todd Blanche, with partner Emil Bove in the New York courtroom. Trump has tapped both for high-ranking Justice Depart- ment posts. Prosecutors said they supported a no-penalty sentence, but chided Trump’s attacks on the legal system throughout the case. “The once and future president of the United States has engaged in a co-ordin- ated campaign to undermine its legitim- acy,” prosecutor Joshua Steinglass said. Afterward, Trump was expected to return to the business of planning for his new administration. He was set later Friday to host conservative House Republicans as they gathered to dis- cuss GOP priorities. The specific charges in the hush money case were about cheques and ledgers. But the underlying accusations were seamy and deeply entangled with Trump’s political rise. Trump was charged with fudging his business’ records to veil a US$130,000 payoff to porn actor Stormy Daniels. She was paid, late in Trump’s 2016 campaign, not to tell the public about a sexual encounter she maintains the two had a decade earlier. He says nothing sexual happened between them and he did nothing wrong. Prosecutors said Daniels was paid off — through Trump’s personal attorney at the time, Michael Cohen — as part of a wider effort to keep voters from hear- ing about Trump’s alleged extramarital escapades. Trump denies the alleged encounters occurred. His lawyers said he want- ed to squelch the stories to protect his family, not his campaign. And while prosecutors said Cohen’s reimburse- ments for paying Daniels were decep- tively logged as legal expenses, Trump says that’s simply what they were. “For this I got indicted,” Trump la- mented to the judge Friday. “It’s incred- ible, actually.” Trump’s lawyers had tried to fore- stall a trial and later to get the convic- tion overturned, the case dismissed or at least the sentencing postponed. Trump attorneys have leaned heav- ily into assertions of presidential immunity from prosecution and got a boost in July from a Supreme Court decision that affords former command- ers-in-chief considerable immunity. Trump was a private citizen and presi- dential candidate when Daniels was paid in 2016. He was president when the reimbursements to Cohen were made and recorded the following year. Merchan, a Democrat, repeatedly postponed the sentencing, initially set for July. But last week, he set Friday’s date, citing a need for “finality.” Trump’s lawyers then launched a flurry of efforts to block sentencing. Their last hope vanished Thursday night with a 5-4 Supreme Court ruling that declined to delay the sentencing. Meanwhile, the other criminal cases that once loomed over Trump have end- ed or stalled ahead of trial. After Trump’s election, special coun- sel Jack Smith closed out the federal prosecutions over Trump’s handling of classified documents and his efforts to overturn his 2020 election loss to Democrat Joe Biden. A state-level Georgia election inter- ference case is locked in uncertainty after prosecutor Fani Willis was re- moved from it. — The Associated Press MICHAEL R. SISAK, JENNIFER PELTZ, JAKE OFFENHARTZ AND MICHELLE L. PRICE Giuliani in contempt of court for continued lies about election workers WASHINGTON — Rudy Giuliani was found in contempt of court Friday for the second time in a week, as a feder- al judge warned him he could be sent to jail if he doesn’t stop spreading lies about two former Georgia election workers who won a US$148 million def- amation judgement against him. U.S. District Judge Beryl Howell in Washington, D.C., found the former New York City mayor and one-time attorney for president-elect Donald Trump violated court orders barring him from defaming Wandrea (Shaye) Moss and her mother, Ruby Freeman. The judge ordered him to review trial testimony and other materials from the case and warned him future violations could land him behind bars. Moss and Freeman sued Rudy Giu- liani for defamation for falsely accus- ing them of committing election fraud in connection with the 2020 election. His lies upended their lives with racist threats and harassment. Giuliani smiled and chuckled as the judge explained why she was holding him in contempt of court. Howell, who was nominated to the bench by Presi- dent Barack Obama, said it is “out- rageous and shameful” for Giuliani to suggest he is the one who has been treated unfairly in this case. “This takes real chutzpah, Mr. Giu- liani,” she said. Shortly before the hearing began, Giuliani slammed the judge in a social media post, calling her “bloodthirsty” and biased against him and the pro- ceeding a “hypocritical waste of time.” After leaving the courtroom, Giuliani called the hearing a farce and the judge “completely biased and prejudiced.” “I don’t care what she did. She is a completely farcical judge,” Giuliani said outside the courtroom. “She didn’t consider a damn thing I said. She wrote it beforehand.” It’s the latest legal setback for Giu- liani, who is facing criminal charges and lost his law licence in D.C. and New York after pursuing false claims Trump made about his 2020 election loss. Giuliani briefly testified during Fri- day’s hearing, only to authenticate rec- ords about his personal finances. The judge didn’t fine Giuliani for his most recent defamatory comments about the case, but she said would im- pose daily fines of $200 if he doesn’t certify within 10 days he has complied with her order to review trial testimony and other case-related material. A jury sided with the mother and daughter in December 2023 and award- ed them US$75 million in punitive damages plus roughly US$73 million in other damages. “Mr. Giuliani started lying about Plaintiffs in December of 2020 and re- fused to stop after repeatedly being told that his election-rigging conspiracy theory about Plaintiffs was baseless, malicious and dangerous,” the plain- tiffs’ lawyers wrote. Giuliani’s attorneys argued the plain- tiffs haven’t presented “clear and con- vincing” evidence he violated a court order in the defamation case in com- ments he made on November podcasts about alleged ballot counting irregular- ities in Georgia. On Monday in New York, Judge Lewis Liman found Giuliani in contempt of court for related claims he failed to turn over evidence to help the judge decide whether he can keep a Palm Beach, Fla. condominium. Giuliani, who testified in Liman’s Manhattan courtroom Jan. 3, said he didn’t turn over everything because he believed the requests were overly broad, inappropriate or even a “trap” set by plaintiffs’ lawyers. Giuliani, 80, had tried to get out of appearing in person Friday, telling the judge he gets death threats and has been told to be careful about traveling. But he withdrew his request to appear virtually after the judge ordered him to explain whether he has traveled from his Florida home within the last month. On the witness stand at the defama- tion trial, Moss and Freeman described fearing for their lives after becoming the target of a false conspiracy theory Giuliani and other Republicans spread as they tried to keep Trump in power after he lost the 2020 election. Moss told jurors she tried to change her appear- ance, seldom leaves her home and suf- fers from panic attacks. Giuliani has pleaded not guilty to nine felony charges in the Arizona case alleging he spread false claims of elec- tion fraud there after the 2020 election. — The Associated Press MICHAEL KUNZELMAN ANGELA WEISS / POOL Attorney Emil Bove looks on as attorney Todd Blanche and president-elect Donald Trump, seen on a television screen, appear virtually in a Manhattan courtroom Friday. ;