Former President Donald Trump sits in the dock at Manhattan Criminal Court in New York City on Thursday.
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Former President Donald Trump is now a convicted felon, but legal experts tell NPR he’s unlikely to face prison time.
A New York jury on Thursday found the former president guilty of 34 felonies in an unprecedented hush-money case. Trump called the trial “disgraceful” and his legal team has said it will appeal.
The charges – falsifying business records to cover up another crime – carry a maximum penalty of four years in prison, but Trump could receive a lighter punishment, such as probation.
Lauren-Brooke Eisen, senior director of the nonprofit Brennan Center for Justice, told NPR’s Ximena Bustillo before the trial ended, “People who have never been convicted of a crime are less likely to go to jail for a first offense. …”, which is non-violent. “
Georgetown University law professor and attorney Paul Butler, a former federal prosecutor and criminal law expert, also told NPR late Thursday that Trump is unlikely to go to jail.
However, some former prosecutors told POLITICO that incarceration may be more likely than conventional wisdom suggests.
New York Judge Juan Merchan has scheduled sentencing for July 11 – just days before the Republican National Convention.
Butler said Merchant may also suspend Trump’s sentence until the appeals process is completed.
The verdict will also have a direct impact on Trump’s voting rights. (He was not banned running Running for president as a convicted felon.
Voting rights for people with felony convictions vary by state. The former president is registered to vote in Florida.
“Florida’s interpretation of its statute is that someone who has a felony conviction in another state is ineligible,” Justin Levitt, an election law expert at Loyola Marymount University and a former Justice Department official, told NPR earlier this year. Florida votes.”[But] Unless a conviction would make the person ineligible to vote anywhere in which he or she was convicted.
New York restricts the voting rights of people convicted of felonies, but only while they are incarcerated.
So if Trump doesn’t serve time in prison for his New York conviction, he’s likely to be on the ballot this fall.
Stephen Fowler and Clayton Kincade contributed to this story.
