(The Lion) — New York Judge Juan Merchan unconditionally “discharged” President-elect Donald Trump in the anticlimactic sentencing of the incoming president for what critics claimed was a prosecution made for political purposes.

Merchan imposed no jail time, probation or fines on Trump as punishment for his convictions.

Trump was convicted on 34 felony charges stemming from payments made to adult actress Stormy Daniels in what’s been dubbed a “hush-money” arrangement made in 2016 over an alleged 2006 affair between the two that Trump denies.

The total cost of the trial to taxpayers in New York, where the prosecution took place, is unknown. But it’s estimated that security alone cost $50,000 per day in a trial that lasted 30 days, making a total of $1.5 million in costs just for securing the courthouse.

If it’s a high price for taxpayers, Trump’s opponents may believe it’s a low price for being able to call him the only president who is a convicted felon, which seems to be the only tangible benefit to anyone to come from the trial.

Legacy media was quick to seize on that benefit.

“Regardless, Trump, a Republican, will be the first person convicted of a felony to assume the presidency,” the Associated Press reported about the sentencing.

Conservatives, on the other hand, said the sentencing just proved that the case was a purely political prosecution that was meant to try to impede Trump from being reelected.

“Dear Democrat Judge Juan Merchan: Q. If you really believe President Trump is a 34-time felon, why aren’t you sentencing him to prison?” asked Mike Davis, an attorney and founder of the legal reform group Article III Project. “A. Because you know this was Democrat lawfare and election interference all along. Third-world tactics from third-world trash.”

Merchan told the court that the unconditional discharge of Trump was the “only lawful sentence” given his reelection, reported Adam Klasfeld at the Jurist.

“It was the citizenry of this nation that recently decided that once again you should have the benefits of those protections which include, among other things, the supremacy clause and presidential immunity,” said Merchan. “It is through that lens and that reality that this court must determine a lawful sentence.”

Prior to the sentencing, the judge, whose daughter is a prominent Democrat fundraiser, retained by Vice President Kamala Harris and Democrat Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont, telegraphed that he would be imposing no punishment on Trump for the convictions.

That’s why the U.S. Supreme Court (SCOTUS) announced last night it would not intervene in the sentencing, after Trump had asked the high court to quash it.

The court noted that Trump has the right to appeal the conviction and the sentence involves no punishment:

“First, the alleged evidentiary violations at President-elect Trump’s state-court trial can be addressed in the ordinary course on appeal,” the SCOTUS decision said, reported Reuters. “Second, the burden that sentencing will impose on the president-elect’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.”

Trump didn’t appear in Merchan’s court in person for sentencing, but participated from his Florida residence, Mar-a-Lago, via a video feed.

In wake of the SCOTUS decision to allow the sentencing to go forward, Trump promised he’d appeal the conviction.

Critics of the prosecution have said Trump has ample reason to do so.

“I’m assuming that the Trump team is going to have a robust appeal with a number of arguments starting from the pre-trial process, through the trial and possibly the sentencing,” Fordham Law Professor Cheryl Bader told ABC News.

Trump said that the legal attack by the prosecutors wasn’t just on him, but on the Republican Party.

“This was an attack on the Republican candidate who just won an election by record numbers,” he said, according to Fox News. “They tried to stop that from happening—they tried to stop this election from happening or to bloody somebody up so badly they couldn’t win.”