Donald Trump has made history as the first former U.S. president to be found guilty of criminal charges, although legal experts believe its unlikely that he could face a prison sentence for his verdict.
Trump, the presumptive Republican presidential nominee for November, was convicted of all 34 counts attached to his hush money indictment brought by Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg on Thursday. The former president pleaded not guilty to all charges and told reporters after his verdict that he had faced a "rigged" trial presided by Judge Juan Merchan.
Each count is a class E felony, which under New York state law is punishable by a fine and up to five years in prison. Merchan is scheduled to issue Trump's sentencing on July 11, four days before the Republican National Convention begins its process of officially nominating its 2024 choice.
Booking a former president into jail would come with several logistical questions that have never had to be answer before, namely how the U.S. Secret Service would still provide round-the-clock protection as is required by law. Syracuse University law professor Gregory Germain told Newsweek that imprisoning the leading presidential candidate of a major political party would also "create a constitutional crisis, and I would expect emergency motions to stay the sentence pending appeal."
"I think a prison sentence is unlikely for a first time nonviolent Class E felony," Germain added. "Any other defendant would be given probation, and I think it
will be very hard for the judge to justify a prison sentence over a records violation."
In the case that Trump is sent to prison, however, Germain said that it would likely "be a mess," given that the "personal safety" of a former president "would be of the highest concern."
"He would certainly not go to a place with hardened violent criminals, but I don't think the state system has luxurious accommodations," he said. "It's really difficult to imagine how they would handle it."
New York-based attorney Bradley Moss, a frequent critic of Trump, agreed that there was "virtually zero chance" that Trump would go to prison "immediately" given that his charges are non-violent.
Moss added, "No one knows for certain how to handle incarcerating a former president," although for "a short-term stay of nothing more than a few months, it is likely prison authorities could section off a part of a prison facility."
"If Trump is ultimately convicted in any of the other cases and is sentenced to
multiple years in prison, then there would be a need to construct something more
specific and unique to him to accommodate a lengthy stay," Moss said. The former president is facing three other criminal indictments while running for reelection.
It's also unclear where Trump could be sent to serve potential prison time. If the question presented itself, details regarding Trump's location would be decided by the New York Department of Corrections after a sentence is issued.
"If he were to go to jail which, I do not think would happen, he would have to be in a separate area of the jail and have access to his Secret Service detail," Bradford Cohen, a criminal defense attorney based in Florida, told Newsweek.
"Any jail that says they are prepared for something like this isn't being honest," he added. "[New York] jails have shown they can't even handle lesser known celebrity figures."
University of Miami law professor Craig Trocino noted that the judge in Trump's case could also issue a sentence that does not involve prison time, such as probation or house arrest.
"Normal individuals on probation or house arrest have many limits place on them," he told Newsweek. "Monitoring of movements, limits on travel, mandatory drug and alcohol testing for instance."
"If it is a prison sentence, the location of the sentence will likely depend on the length of the sentence," Trocino continued. "Shorter sentences, one year or less, are usually at Rikers Island. Longer sentence will be somewhere that the New York prison authority decides. The prison could decide to place him in a special housing unit within the prison."
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Bragg told reporters at a press briefing Thursday evening that his office would "speak in our court filings" when asked if they planned to request a prison sentence for Trump in July.
"I'm not going to address hypotheticals...This is an active, on-going matter," he added.
The district attorney also repeatedly thanked his prosecutors who worked on the case, and declined a chance to respond to criticism issued by Trump and others who questioned the integrity of the case.
"Today, we have the most important voice of all, and that's the voice of the jurors," Bragg said. "They have spoken. Donald J. Trump has been convicted of 34 counts of falsifying business records."
Update 05/30/24, 7:05 p.m. ET: This story has been updated with additional information and background.
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Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.
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