Alan Dershowitz says judge 'played a trick' on SCOTUS regarding Trump sentencing in hush money case

Harvard Law School Professor Emeritus Alan Dershowitz said Friday that New York Judge Juan Merchan played a trick on the U.S. Supreme Court with Trump sentencing. 

"Judge Merchan decided to outsmart the Supreme Court so he decided in advance that he wouldn't send him to jail," Dershowitz said on the "Just the News, No Noise" TV show. "I know of no judge in my 62 years of practice who has ever announced in advance what he's going to sentence the person to."

Trump on Friday received a sentence of unconditional discharge in Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg's hush money case.

The sentence means Trump will not face jail time, probation, or a fine.

Trump appeared remotely for the proceedings from his Mar-a-Lago estate. He took a defiant tone during the sentencing, highlighting his election victory, which he said was indicative of public rejection of the case.

"This judge deliberately announced in advance that he wasn't going to sentence him to jail in order to get the Supreme Court not to take the case and when the Supreme Court didn't take the case, what happened is they basically said, 'since he's not going to jail we don't have to consider the case. Now we can wait until the appeal comes up,'" Dershowitz said. 

"Judge Merchan played a trick on the Supreme Court and the Supreme Court fell for it," he later added.