Tuesday, May 28, 2024
Year : 2, Issue: 22
Donald Trump’s historic criminal hush money trial is set to reach a crescendo this week after closing arguments begin on Tuesday, marking the first time a jury will deliberate over whether to convict a former U.S. president.
Michael Cohen – Trump’s former lawyer, fixer and confidant – was the star witness for the prosecutors, and testified that Trump directed him to make a $130,000 hush money payment to a former porn star and then approved the scheme to reimburse Cohen. The conspiracy sits at the heart of the case.
Trump could face time behind bars if convicted – up to four years under New York law for each of the Class E felonies with which he’s charged.
But this is no ordinary defendant, and it’s unlikely a judge would hand down a prison sentence for a nonviolent crime to a 77-year-old former president with no prior convictions.
“Let’s level-set for a minute: If it were any other defendant that had three other open indictments in three other jurisdictions and was held in contempt 10 times during this trial, he would be put in and be given a jail sentence,” says Karen Agnifilo, who served for 14 years as an assistant district attorney in Manhattan and then went on to serve as executive assistant district attorney, chief of the trial division and chief assistant district attorney for the Manhattan DA’s office. “But he’s not going to be treated like everyone else.”
The severity will depend on how many counts Trump is found guilty.
“It could be nine counts, it could be 34 counts,” says Judge George Grasso, who served for more than a decade as an administrative judge for criminal matters in New York City’s Queens Supreme Court. “The number of counts has some bearing. If someone were convicted of one count of a nonviolent E felony, it’s different than someone being found guilty of 34 counts.”
“It could be 30 days jail and three years’ probation, or it could just be probation or it could be a conditional discharge,” Grasso says. “The judge has a lot of options here.”
Trump has already said he plans to appeal a guilty verdict – a process that would take months to resolve and likely push past the 2024 presidential election.
Source: US News
