After being found guilty on all 34 counts of falsifying business records in the first degree, Donald Trump’s legal woes now move into the sentencing phase. And what happens next is anybody’s guess.
Justice Juan Merchan, who has overseen the trial, has resisted putting Trump in jail on contempt charges, even as the former president violated the court’s gag rule 10 times. But whether he will change his mind now that Trump is a convicted felon is something of a mystery.
Legal experts say it’s unlikely. Trump was convicted of Class E felonies, the lowest level of felony. It was his first offense and a nonviolent crime. There were no drugs or weapons involved. And Trump’s age, 77, is a factor as well.
And layered on top of that is Trump’s status as a presidential candidate, which might not have legal precedent, but isn’t something the court is likely to ignore.
Still, the odds of Trump being ordered to report to prison when he faces sentencing on July 11—four days before the Republican convention is set to begin—are not zero, which raises the question: What would the imprisonment of a former U.S. president (and the presumptive Republican candidate for 2024) look like?
The maximum sentence for the charges Trump was found guilty of is four years in prison. (Marchan could also opt for anything from probation to a “conditional discharge,” which wouldn’t require Trump to check in with any officials, as long as he did not get in additional trouble.) Should he be sentenced to prison, there will be a long series of appeals, so he wouldn’t likely report anytime soon.
But if he were to serve jail time, he wouldn’t go alone. The Secret Service protection Trump enjoys would extend to a prison sentence as well, meaning agents would have to accompany him to continue its round the clock protection.
The Secret Service does not discuss protection methods and has been especially close-lipped about plans and contingencies if Trump is sent to prison. But Trump’s multiple contempt violations raised the possibility, so plans were being formulated.
The New York Times reports most of the discussions so far have been on how to move and protect Trump in the courthouse jail in case he was jailed for contempt. Should he be sent to an actual prison, though, that would mean an unprecedented level of coordination between city, state, and federal officials.
Trump, of course, would be kept separate from other prisoners. And a detail of agents would rotate in and out of the facility. While guns are not allowed in prisons, odds are the Secret Service would refuse to go unarmed.
An alternate possibility is Trump could get a prison to himself. Corrections officials told the Times there are several city and state prisons that have been closed or partly closed, which would both accommodate Trump and his detail and ensure his safety.
And what if Trump is elected? Could he avoid a prison sentence by pardoning himself?
No. Presidential pardons are only for federal crimes. They can not commute state sentences, meaning there is a possibility, albeit ludicrously remote, that the President of the United States could be running the country from a prison cell.
