Trump’s Hush-Money Sentencing Could Hit Him Where It Actually Hurts
Donald Trump will face virtually no legal consequences related to his hush-money sentencing, but he will have to endure some undesirable, tangentially connected ramifications as a result.
Trump received an unconditional discharge in New York Friday, stripping the possibility that he would face any fines, court-appointed supervision, or incarceration related to his criminal conviction. But while the president-elect may not be facing the music in the Empire State, Trump is reportedly at risk of losing his liquor license in New Jersey due to Friday’s proceedings.
New Jersey law prohibits the distribution of licenses to anyone convicted of a crime “involving moral turpitude.” The state’s Alcoholic Beverage Control issued a notice following Trump’s hearing that the agency “will proceed in determining whether President-elect Trump is qualified to continue to hold an interest in the licenses,” according to a statement obtained by Forbes.
Liquor licenses for two of Trump’s clubs in the Garden State expired in July while state officials weighed whether his criminal conviction would prevent him from ever renewing the beverage license again.
“The final judgment of conviction that raises the prospect of disqualifying Mr. Trump from an interest in a New Jersey liquor license due to the guilty verdict in New York will not be entered until after his sentencing,” a spokesman for the New Jersey attorney general’s office told The Hill at the time, adding that the burden of proof remains on the applicant to prove they meet the requirements for the license.
The Trump Organization pushed back on the New Jersey investigation, arguing that the conviction should be irrelevant to the clubs’ operation as Trump himself is not the holder of the liquor licenses.