I’m a very innocent man’. Former US president and now convicted felon Donald Trump spoke as he left the courtroom to describe his trial as rigged by a corrupt judge. He blamed the Biden administration and says the real verdict will come on November 5 when US voters go to the polls.
The judge presiding over the case, Juan Merchan, must first approve the verdict and enter a final judgment, though this is typically a formality.
Criminal defendants in New York are typically sentenced within several weeks of conviction, but post-verdict legal wrangling can sometimes lead to months of delays. In the meantime, lawyers and prosecutors will recommend sentences and then argue over them at Trump’s sentencing hearing, where Merchan will make a decision.
That is unlikely to go to prison.
The maximum sentence for Trump’s crime of falsifying business records is 1-1/3 to four years in prison.
It is rare for people with no criminal history who are convicted only of falsification of business records to be sentenced to prison in New York. Punishments like fines or probation are more common.
Defendants convicted of falsifying business records who get sentenced to time behind bars typically serve a year or less, and even in those cases most were convicted of other crimes such as fraud or grand larceny - unlike Trump
If punished beyond a fine, Trump could be placed under home confinement or subject to a curfew rather than imprisoned.
As a former president, he has a lifetime Secret Service detail, and the logistics of keeping him safe behind bars could be complicated.Trump could also be released on bail while appealing his conviction.
Yes. Trump is likely to make arguments that Merchan rejected ahead of trial, including that the indictment is legally flawed and politically motivated. He is also likely to argue Merchan deprived him of a fair trial by making legal errors, including allowing salacious testimony by a porn star who said she had sex with Trump - testimony his lawyers said was gratuitous and aimed at inflaming the jury against him.
The defense is likely to argue that the charges themselves were legally improper. Falsifying business records on its own is a misdemeanor in New York, but is elevated to a felony when done to help commit or conceal another crime. In this case, Bragg's office said that other crime was a conspiracy to violate a state election law.
But Trump's lawyers have argued that state law does not apply to federal elections
Yes. The US Constitution only requires that presidents be at least 35 years old and natural-born US citizens who have lived in the country for 14 years. In theory, Trump could be sworn in from jail or prison on Inauguration Day, Jan. 20, 2025, if he were to unseat Biden.
Former President Donald Trump on Thursday was found guilty on all 34 felony counts in his criminal hush money trial.
It was the first time a former US president was ever tried or convicted in a criminal case, and was the first of Trump’s four indictments to reach trial.
Prosecutors accused Trump of falsifying internal business records to cover up hush money payments tied to an alleged scheme to bury stories that might torpedo his 2016 White House bid.
At the heart of the charges were reimbursements paid to Trump’s former lawyer Michael Cohen for a $130,000 hush money payment to porn actor Stormy Daniels in exchange for not going public with her claim about a 2006 sexual encounter with Trump, Reuters reported.
Prosecutors said the reimbursements were falsely logged as “legal expenses” to hide the true nature of the transactions.
The charges Trump faces are punishable by up to four years in prison. He has denied any wrongdoing and had pleaded not guilty.
Judge Juan M. Merchan has set Trump’s sentencing for July 11.
