Donald Trump was found guilty in the Manhattan hush money case for covering up a scheme to corrupt the 2016 election — here’s what to expect next for the former president.
A jury found that Trump, 77, doctored business records to hide that he had porn star Stormy Daniels paid $130,000 in the lead up to the 2016 election to keep her quiet about her allegations that she slept with him one time in 2006.
He was convicted of falsifying business records to carry out another crime and faces a minimum of probation and a maximum of four years imprisonment.
The presumptive Republican presidential nominee will remain free until his sentencing date on July 11, Manhattan Supreme Court Justice Juan Merchan said after the verdict was read out Thursday afternoon.
Trump also won’t face any travel restrictions until his sentencing, according to Michael Bachner, a former prosecutor and longtime defense attorney.
The 45th president most likely will receive a no-jail sentence and therefore prosecutors wouldn’t seek to jail him ahead of his sentence and a judge wouldn’t likely grant such a request anyway, Bachner explained.
“He will not be remanded,” Bachner told The Post. “There is no requirement that the judge remand him and I would be shocked if the judge were to remand him even if [prosecutors] asked for it.”
Bachner explained that since “there is a very decent chance he’s looking at a probationary sentence. It would be unnecessary punishment to incarcerate somebody who very likely isn’t getting a jail sentence.”
Defense attorney Jeffrey Lichtman — who repped drug kingpin Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman, among other notable clients — agreed “I do not expect he’d receive any jail time.”
And there isn’t much of a chance that Trump will go on the lam, Bachner said.
“He’s neither dangerous nor a flight risk. He’s one of the most well known faces in the United States. Where is he going to run?” the lawyer said.
Trump will be sentenced on July 11.
First, he’ll have to meet with the probation department to go over his history and then both prosecutors and Trump’s lawyers will file their sentencing recommendations to the judge.
Prosecutors haven’t said what penalty they will be seeking but it’s possible they won’t ask for jail time since Trump was convicted of a non-violent crime and since he has no prior convictions.
Either way, the real estate tycoon’s lawyers most certainly will ask for a probationary sentence, Bachner said.
Despite being a convicted felon, Trump can still continue his presidential run.
And experts told CBS News that Trump – whose primary residence is in Florida – will likely still be able to vote come November since he’s unlikely to be sentenced to prison.
Florida “defers to other state laws when it comes to disenfranchising voters who are tried and convicted elsewhere,” Blair Bowie, a lawyer at the Campaign Legal Center, told the outlet.
Under New York law, a felon is only prevented from voting while incarcerated.
The former president could also lose his right to own a gun, according to the federal Gun Control Act.
But whether Trump even owns a gun is not clear.
Trump’s attorneys said they plan to appeal the verdict “as soon as we can.”
First, Trump’s team will most likely seek to have Judge Juan Merchan set aside the verdict and if that’s rejected this will set off at least a year’s worth of appeals by Trump’s side, experts say.
Any appeal “won’t be [decided] before the election,” Bachner said.
And if Trump loses an appeal with the mid-level appeals court, he’ll likely seek to have the state’s highest court hear his case, which could take another additional year.
“An appeal could easily take a year or longer after the sentencing,” Lichtman said.
Bachner noted that if Trump were sentenced to jail time he would probably remain out free pending the appeal.
“To the extent there is a reversal on the appeal by the time Trump’s appeal is decided he would have already done his jail time so it would just be unfair to incarcerate him,” he explained.
1 comment:
You mention that it would not be "fair" to incarcerate him pending appeal because by the time the appeal would be decided he will have served his full sentence anyway, rendering the appeal moot.
Several points:
1) "Fairness" has no part of this process. A trial led by a corrupt prosecutor, presided over by a corrupt judge, (whose daughter made millions off this trial and probably kicked back a large chunk to her father, taking a lesson from President Biden's playbook, the most corrupt President is U.S. history) and decided by a biased jury in a deep blue state venue will not result in a "fair" outcome.
2) You write that President Trump faces a maximum sentence of 4 years, which he will probably not receive. My understanding is that that the maximum sentence is 4 years on EACH of 34 counts. This comes to a maximum sentence of 136 years to be served consecutively. Therefore, Trump might conceivably be incarcerated pending appeal.
3) My guess is that the sentence shall be something like a "magnanimous" 136 months. The judge will however, generously "offer" probation in lieu of incarceration, provided that Trump agrees never to run for public office. "Justice" will be served by protecting the public from the "excesses" of the Republican party. Ironically, the judge will ensure no further interference in the electoral process, by interfering in the electoral process.
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