Now that closing arguments have begun and a verdict is imminent, inquiring minds want to know: is jail time a real possibility for Donald Trump?
Politics :
Donald Trump is accused of paying off former porn star Stormy Daniels to remain silent about their love affair so as not to affect his run for the presidency in 2016. Such an act is illegal and considered election interference and an affront to existing campaign laws. However, Trump and his minions have decided that the hush money payment is no big deal and the trial is nothing more than a political witch hunt designed to prevent him from winning the White House in November.
However, it is a big deal.
Trump could face up to 4 years in prison for each of the 34 charges filed against him in the hush money trial that just wrapped up in New York City on Tuesday. Additionally, the possibility of him serving jail time is so severe that the US Secret Service is already preparing for a possible conviction as early as next week — and how they might provide protection to a former POTUS who’s been sentenced to a term behind bars.
According to CBS News, the Secret Service recently met with “local jail officials” as part of a plan to explore the full scope of possibilities ahead of a verdict in the Trump hush-money trial. The belief is that Trump’s jail time could begin at New York City’s notorious Rikers Island and then transfer to a state penitentiary at a later date.
Could a guilty verdict and remand to jail all happen within the same day? Interestingly, the answer is yes.
“I’ve had cases where the jury comes back and says, ‘Guilty,’ and the judge thanks the jury, and excuses them, and says, ‘Let’s sentence the defendant right now,’” Manhattan Prosecutor Duncan Levin said. “Obviously, everything’s a little different about this case than the typical case.”
However, Judge Juan Merchan has previously expressed a hesitancy toward jail time for Trump.
“You are the former president of the United States and possibly the next president, as well,” Judge Merchan said earlier this month after finding that Trump violated a gag order for a 10th time. “The last thing I want to do is to put you in jail.”
Judge Merchan also conceded that a possible prison sentence would be a “last resort” because he worried “about the people who would have to execute that sanction: the court officers, the correction officers, the Secret Service detail, among others.”
Still, the law is the law and no person — not even Donald Trump — is above the law.
Meanwhile, famed Harvard Law School Professor Emeritus Alan Dershowitz — who is a Trump sympathizer — has gone public with the warning that a Trump guilty verdict will weaponize the US justice system forever.
“If there’s a conviction here, it will change the justice system forevermore,” Dershowitz said on the Just the News, No Noise TV show. “It will weaponize the system. It will mean that both sides will try to use the legal system as a way of winning elections.”
He may have a valid point.
If Donald Trump is convicted and given jail time, it’s almost a given that Republican/MAGA political operatives will seek revenge by attempting to “find a crime” committed by President Biden, Obama, or Clinton and then convict one of them to jail.
If Donald Trump is found guilty in the Stormy Daniels hush money trial, should he receive the same sentence any other American would receive (which could include jail time)? Or, because of the fear of ‘tit-for-tat,’ is the threat of political retribution as mentioned by Alan Dershowitz worth diminishing a Trump sentence to probation or house arrest?
OK WASSUP! discusses Politics:
Secret Service prepares for possible Trump jail time.
It would be interesting to see how they handle it if he goes to jail. He gets secret service to protect him no matter what. How they would be able to do that in jail is something to see.