A judge has ordered US president-elect Donald Trump to be sentenced next week in the New York hush money case – but has suggested he will not jail him.

In a surprise move, a judge set Trump’s sentencing in the case for 10 January.

It will be little over a week before his inauguration on 20 January.

Judge Juan Merchan, who presided over Trump’s trial, signalled in a written decision that he’d sentence the former and future president to what’s known as a conditional discharge, in which a case gets dismissed if a defendant avoids rearrest.

Trump was convicted in May of 34 counts of falsifying business records, relating to an alleged scheme to hide a hush money payment to adult actress Stormy Daniels.

The judge said: “While this court as a matter of law must not make any determination on sentencing prior to giving the parties and defendants, opportunity to be heard, it seems proper at this juncture to make known the court’s inclination to not impose any sentence of incarceration, a sentence authorised by the conviction but one the people concede they no longer view as a practicable recommendation.”

This breaking news story is being updated and more details will be published shortly.

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