On Friday, President-elect Donald Trump finally faced sentencing following his dubious criminal conviction in New York last year on 34 felony counts of falsifying business records.

Judge Juan Merchan publicly released audio of the sentencing hearing, and Trump was heard decrying the "political witch hunt" of a trial as a "great embarrassment" for New York and its justice system, Fox News reported.

In the end, however, Merchan sentenced Trump to an "unconditional discharge," meaning he will face no jail time, probation, or fines but will forever be known as a convicted felon, barring a reversal of the jury's verdict on appeal.

Trump calls "political witch hunt" case a "great embarrassment" for New York

During Friday's sentencing hearing, Judge Merchan took the unusual step of allowing the media to record and publish the full audio of the proceeding, which allowed everyone to hear what President-elect Trump, who attended the hearing virtually, had to say about the extraordinary and unprecedented prosecution of a former and future president.

"This has been a very terrible experience," Trump said of the months-long prosecution and trial. "I think it's been a tremendous setback for New York and the New York court system."

"This is a case that Alvin Bragg did not want to bring. He thought it was, from what I read and from what I hear, inappropriately handled before he got there. And a gentleman from a law firm came in and acted as a district attorney," he continued about the Manhattan district attorney and his prosecutorial team. "And that gentleman, from what I heard, was a criminal or almost criminal in what he did. It was very inappropriate. It was somebody involved with my political opponent."

Trump asserted, "I think it's an embarrassment to New York and New York has a lot of problems, but this is a great embarrassment."

"It's been a political witch hunt. It was done to damage my reputation so that I'd lose the election," he later added. "And obviously, that didn't work. And the people of our country got to see this firsthand because they watched the case in your courtroom. They got to see this firsthand. And then they voted, and I won."

Trump lashes out on social media

President-elect Trump separately addressed the long-awaited sentencing in a Truth Social post, and wrote, "The Radical Democrats have lost another pathetic, unAmerican Witch Hunt."

"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 continued.

"That result alone proves that, as all Legal Scholars and Experts have said, THERE IS NO CASE, THERE WAS NEVER A CASE, and this whole Scam fully deserves to be DISMISSED," Trump said. "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."

"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," he added. "Today’s event was a despicable charade, and 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. MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!"

Judge ends case with "unconditional discharge"

For his part in the proceedings, Judge Merchan spoke about the difficulty of rendering a sentence in this "extraordinary case" full of unique circumstances and said, "After careful analysis, this court determined that the only lawful sentence that permits entry of judgment of conviction is an unconditional discharge."

And, after everything was said and done, the judge seemed conciliatory toward the president-elect as he concluded, "Sir, I wish you Godspeed as you assume the second term in office."