'Uncharted waters': Experts suggest Trump’s looming sentence could include prison time

www.alternet.org 'Uncharted waters': Experts suggest Trump’s looming sentence could include prison time

On September 18 — just 48 days before the election — former President Donald Trump is due to appear in Manhattan, where he will be sentenced for 34 felony convictions. Some criminal justice experts believe the ex-president could very well end up behind bars.Newsweek reported that University of Calif...

33 comments

"Could"? Sure. "Should"? Probably. "Will"? No chance. Have you not been paying attention?

82
- There is a chance. It is much smaller than I'd like, but it's there.
  
  14
  
  I think it’s a larger chance than most people think. Yes it’s a first offense but it’s not an offense that should be taken lightly. He has a history of crime now after being found guilty of fraud and civilly liable for sexual assault(rape).
  
  I see no reason for the judge to go easy on him. He was a PITA and didn’t follow gag orders, he’s guilty of a degree of fraud we haven’t seen in a long time, and that fraud impacted an election of the United States in a very large way, leading to uninformed voters and hid a scandal from the public.
  
  The judge should bury him. At least give him 2-3 months in jail. If this comes without jail time, it will be a huge injustice to everyone. To know that you can lie to the American voting public and commit fraud from the White House and get away with a slap on the wrist would do great damage to this country (nothing new tho). Hope the judge does the right thing.
  
  7
  
  Na.
  
  Sadly the legal armchair experts said that common sentence for a first time offense of what he was found guilty of does not include prison.
  
  -1
Even 30 days would be great. I just wanna feel like he got punished slightly for all those laws he's broken.

45
- I’d settle for a fucking week of him being made to wear an orange suit and shit next to his bed.
  
  16
  
  That'll never happen. He'd be in that celebrity jail they send people like Martha Stewart.
  
  8
I feel like it's a primatologists scenario now, where all the top primatologists are like "We have to stand back and let them do this, otherwise it's really bad for their society" ...and the wealthy corrupt Zoo owner is still like "but he's my top attraction, I could never let them kill old poo flinger".

We need to kill old poo flinger.

35
That seems wildly unlikely based on the analysis I've seen. I'd love it to be wrong, of course.

34
- agreed. but, if he gets convicted in another trial multiple convictions could affect sentencing.
  
  5
  
  Multiple convictions is a whole other thing. Right now, he's a "first time offender." But if he's a convicted as a felon I think other cases will go differently.
  
  3
Really, given that he violated his gag order multiple times and threatened the judge, the jury, and the witnesses, Merchan should absolutely give him some prison time, and point out during sentencing that simply keeping his mouth shut and respecting the process would've resulted in some probation and community service. Most first-time offenders don't get prison time for this, but Trump couldn't stop running his mouth.

Two years would be a just punishment, I think.

31
- Good that you mentioned this. After all that you listed, he still whined that he was being victimized and how he couldn't speak to defend himself. He's doing the same thing with the requests to lay off the personal attacks on kamala and stick to policy from his side. He is indeed scum of the earth, playing the victim. Except scum is nicer.
  
  14
Lock him the fuck up.

29
Lock him up

22
- I concur
  
  2
I hope he loses by one vote in Florida

11
- I hope he loses by 100,000 votes in Florida so he can’t as easily whine about the result.
  
  14
- He can pay one person to flip. He can't pay tens of thousands.
  
  3
Not if the Supreme court has something to say.

10
Yoo is a war criminal and should be behind bars. Instead he's a pundit in faux news.

8
- Trump is a nightmare for sure, but I’d argue every US president from at least the past 80 years is a war criminal who should be behind bars.
  
  -2
  
  They were referring to the person quoted in the article:
  
  California-Berkeley law professor John Yoo, who served in former President George W. Bush's Department of Justice
  
  He wrote the Torture Memos, among other things, which is probably why the previous commenter would call him out as a war criminal.
  
  9
I'm only hoping that if he's elected he winds up serving the entirety of his term indoors at Mar a Lago and incessantly rages about his ankle bracelet and not being able to play golf

6
- I wouldn't care if he spent the rest of his life in a 5-star resort being waited on hand and foot, if the sentence also included a complete ban from the internet and contact with the media. I don't care if he's living like a fucking king, as long as his toxic rhetoric is cut off. I feel like we can't ever recover from this as a country as long as he's still got a microphone.
  
  11
Fuck that. It should include the gallows.

5
- Yes, but not for the 34 felonies he's been convicted of so far.
  
  2
I want to see him in GP telling everyone how great he is. Won't happen, but want to see it.

4
- I want to see him in an orange jumpsuit.
  
  3
  
  Camouflage.
  
  1

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