by Luc Cohen
NEW YORK, May 31 (Reuters) – The 12-member New York court jury charged with deciding the “Stormy Daniels affair” made the historic decision to find former President Donald Trump guilty on all 34 counts of accusation against him.
Now, Judge Juan Merchan, who will deliver his sentence on July 11, is faced with a crucial choice, with serious consequences for the future: whether or not to sentence the Republican candidate for the 2024 presidential election to a prison sentence.
This unprecedented hearing will take place four days before the start of the Republican Party’s national convention during which Donald Trump must be formally inaugurated for the November 5 election.
In New York State, prison sentences for people convicted of falsification, like Donald Trump, are rare.
The former real estate mogul, 77, was found guilty of falsifying documents to hide the payment of some $130,000 to a former porn star, Stormy Daniels, in exchange for her silence before the 2016 presidential election on a sexual relationship she claims to have had with him in 2006, when he was already married.
Donald Trump denies this relationship as well as any wrongdoing. He plans to appeal.
Theoretically, Democrat Joe Biden’s rival faces a maximum sentence of four years in prison.
Several jurists believe that in this case, the judge will not be able to rely on case law to decide the fate of the former tenant of the White House, who became the first former American president to be convicted of a criminal crime.
“A DIFFERENT ANIMAL”
“Typically, this is not the type of case where you would expect a first-time white-collar offender to receive a prison sentence,” observes the lawyer New Yorker Andrew Weinstein, who in 2009 represented a man sentenced to a three-year suspended prison sentence after pleading guilty to falsifying business documents as part of a check-cashing scheme.
“But everything about Donald Trump is different, and I don’t think you can point to any other convictions because it’s just a different animal.”
Six legal experts, including defense attorneys and former prosecutors, told Reuters it was rare for people without criminal pasts – like Donald Trump – convicted in such cases to be sentenced to prison.
Penalties of fine, suspended probation or community service apply for this type of offense.
A prison sentence is not impossible, however, according to lawyers. Judge Juan Merchan could take into account the lack of remorse of Donald Trump, who pushed the case to trial, and the seriousness of the accusations because of their links to the 2016 election.
Prosecutors say the bribe paid to Stormy Daniels was part of a broader plan, in violation of campaign finance laws, to silence people with potentially compromising information for Donald Trump.
At a news conference after Thursday’s hearing, Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg declined to say whether his office would seek prison time for the former president.
PRISON SENTENCES IN THE PAST
According to a November prosecutor’s office filing, 437 cases were brought by prosecutors for falsifying business records in the decade before Donald Trump was indicted in March 2023.
Reuters was unable to examine each of these cases, some of which concern legal entities which therefore cannot be incarcerated. But Manhattan Criminal Court records show that at least four defendants who pleaded guilty to that charge during that time were sentenced to a year or less behind bars.
Three of these defendants, unlike Donald Trump, were also charged with crimes such as fraud and robbery.
The fourth individual – a construction sector executive who pleaded guilty in December 2015 to falsifying commercial documents – was sentenced to an intermittent sentence of one year’s imprisonment, a procedure which provided for his incarceration at the prison of Rikers Island, New York, only from Monday evening to Wednesday morning.
In court, Judge Juan Merchan openly raised the possibility of a prison sentence against Donald Trump.
“Everyone knows that if Mr. Trump is convicted in this case, he faces prison time,” he said during the jury selection process at the start of the trial.
Even so, possible incarceration would not prevent Donald Trump from running on November 5, nor from returning to the White House on January 20, 2025 in the event of victory against Joe Biden.
But the political consequences of this unprecedented scenario, in a fractured democracy, would be unfathomable. (Reporting Luc Cohen in New York; written by Noeleen Walder, Howard Goller and Daniel Wallis, Blandine Hénault for the French version, edited by Sophie Louet)
©2024 Thomson Reuters, all rights reserved. Reuters content is the intellectual property of Thomson Reuters or its third party content providers. Any copying, republication or redistribution of Reuters content, including by framing or similar means, is expressly prohibited without the prior written consent of Thomson Reuters. Thomson Reuters shall not be liable for any errors or delays in content, or for any actions taken in reliance thereon. “Reuters” and the Reuters Logo are trademarks of Thomson Reuters and its affiliated companies.