"Totally exonerated"

I think it would be more accurate to say he was already formally convicted, and he has now been sentenced.  Whatever.  There's no practical difference.

"An injustice of justice."

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

UPDATE 11:00 am:

In some distant future, Mark.  In some distant future.

Donald Trump decried that his hush money trial was a “witch hunt” during his sentencing hearing Friday, but he saved his biggest fireworks for a post-hearing rant on Truth Social.

“After spending tens of millions of dollars, wasting over 6 years of obsessive work that should have been spent on protecting New Yorkers from violent, rampant crime that is destroying the City and State, coordinating with the Biden/Harris Department of Injustice in lawless Weaponization, and bringing completely baseless, illegal, and fake charges against your 45th and 47th President, ME, I was given an UNCONDITIONAL DISCHARGE,” he wrote in part.

Trump’s sentence of unconditional discharge means he will face no prison time, fines, or probation. However, he will carry the distinction of being the first president in U.S. history to be a felon when he’s sworn in on Jan. 20.

  Daily Beast

Big deal. He's also the first president to incite an insurrection in order to try to stay in office. He's the first president to refuse to divest in, and instead use for profit owing to his position, his money-making properties. He's the first to graft and grift his way through his term. He's the first in a lot of things, and he'll be the first in a lot more and more horrible things in the next term.

[H]e was not a silent participant like he was when he attend hearings in New York.

He said “this has been a very terrible experience” and that his conviction was a “tremendous setback” for the New York court system.

He added that the trial was a “political witch hunt,” brought forward to damage his reputation and electoral chances ahead of the 2024 election. He added that he was “totally innocent.”

“I was treated very, very unfairly, and I thank you very much,” Trump said, closing his comments.

"I thank you very much." ??

Trump was less rational in a Truth Social post shortly after the hearing.

“The real Jury, the American People, have spoken, by Re-Electing me with an overwhelming MANDATE in one of the most consequential Elections in History,” he wrote. “As the American People have seen, this ‘case’ had no crime, no damages, no proof, no facts, no Law, only a highly conflicted Judge, a star witness who is a disbarred, disgraced, serial perjurer, and criminal Election Interference. Today’s event was a despicable charade.”

No crime? No proof? No facts? No law?

Friday’s sentence is likely not the end to this years-long saga. Trump and his attorneys have indicated they will appeal the conviction.

“Now that it is over, we will appeal this Hoax, which has no merit, and restore the trust of Americans in our once great System of Justice,” Trump wrote on Truth Social.

UPDATE 01/11/2025:

Joyce Vance is a law professor and former federal prosecutor.  If she did explain it this way, I assume it was still speculation, and not because she knows it for a certainty.  Sounds very plausible, though.  Such a corrupt court.

Judge Juan Merchan's ruling spares Trump any jail time, fines or probation supervision for his conviction, though the sentence cements his status as the first convicted felon to hold the White House.

[...]

The president-elect was convicted in May on charges he falsified business records to cover up a sex scandal threatening to break during his first presidential campaign in 2016.

A jury found him guilty on all 34 counts.

[...]

The incoming president appeared remotely during the hearing with his lawyer on TV screens in the courtroom. Taking his opportunity to address the court, Trump maintained his innocence and said the case was a "tremendous setback" for the justice system.

"I'm totally innocent, I did nothing wrong," said Trump.

[...]

Under New York law, a judge can choose an unconditional discharge if they don't see prison time or probation as being in the public's best interest.

"An unconditional discharge is virtually nothing in terms of punishment," David Dorfman, a law professor at Pace University in New York, told CBC News in an interview Friday.

"You are now known forever as a felon, but basically there's no direct consequence to the 34 convictions. The former and soon-to-be-president owes nothing to the courts."

  CBC Canada

Or the American people.

With sentencing over, Trump is now free to formally appeal the jury's verdict. He cannot pardon himself because those presidential powers only apply to federal crimes, not those brought at the state level.

It will never end.

Canada is among dozens of countries in the world to refuse entry to felons. It will likely fall upon Canada's immigration minister to grant Trump special status to make him legally admissible for entry into the country moving forward.

Trump's remedy is to threaten to take over Canada.