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  • The defendant, Donald J. Trump, is guilty of 34 counts of falsifying business records in the first degree.

  • This is a scam.

  • There's a rigged trial.

  • To conceal a scheme to corrupt the 2016 election.

  • If they can do this to me, they can do this to anyone.

  • This is a completely unprecedented case.

  • The United States has never seen a former or current president be charged with a crime, be convicted of a crime or be sentenced for a crime.

  • It's unheard of for a former president to go to jail.

  • Donald Trump's going to be sentenced as scheduled on July 11th in Manhattan Supreme Court.

  • That's only four days before the start of the Republican National Committee, which is going to coronate him as the official GOP presidential nominee.

  • If a case follows its normal course in New York, what happens now is the probation department has to prepare a report back to the judge with a sentence recommendation.

  • And with a normal human being, they'd be out interviewing family members and friends to determine what kind of character the defendant has.

  • It may seem like it may not be necessary in this case, but it will be helpful.

  • It'll talk about his background, things that may not be quite public knowledge that'll go into the judge's determination as to sentencing.

  • The defense attorneys, on the other hand, are going to make an argument that he should get no jail time.

  • They've already said that because of the status of the next president, because of the fact that this is the first offense, because of the fact that this is the lowest level of felony in New York State.

  • And because of the fact that the vast majority of people that are convicted of this crime don't serve a period of incarceration.

  • He faces potentially four years in prison on a Class E felony, which is what this is.

  • He could be fined $5,000.

  • He could also be put on probation for probably as much as four years.

  • He could be told to wear an ankle bracelet and confined to his home.

  • There are all kinds of options here.

  • He's a first time offender.

  • And I will tell you that statistically, first time offenders normally do not get jail time on this offense.

  • So that's historically that's been the case.

  • First time offenders for these types of offenses don't typically get jail time.

  • In addition to that, you can't send former President Trump to jail.

  • And by that, I mean, even if the judge were to sentence him, there's not a warden in the country who's not going to say, you know, I can't keep this person safe inside my facility.

  • He could be sentenced to a conditional sentence, which means that the judge could set a series of conditions saying, for example, don't commit any more crimes, do community service.

  • And if he doesn't comply with that, the judge could then send him to jail for a certain amount of time.

  • They will also be considering, as they must, here we have a 77-year-old defendant, no prior record, nonviolent e-felony, maximum incarceration time, four years.

  • That will all weigh and should weigh in favor of the defendant.

  • Donald Trump has said, he said in an interview recently, that he would have no problem going to jail or serving a sentence of home confinement.

  • But, you know, his supporters might not like that and his family wouldn't like it.

  • I don't know that the public would stand it.

  • You know, I don't I'm not sure the public would stand for it.

  • I think it would be tough for the public to take.

  • You know, at a certain point, there's a breaking point.

  • I think it's distinctly possible that Trump's conduct inside of court and around court during this trial will play a role in Judge Mershawn's sentencing decision.

  • I've tried a lot of criminal cases and I've never seen somebody held in contempt 10 times during the course of the trial.

  • Of course, normally they'd be thrown in jail immediately in the middle of the trial.

  • That didn't happen here.

  • He also has a defendant here who argues not only that he's innocent, but that these charges are the result of a vast conspiracy against him led by Joe Biden and the Department of Justice when there's no evidence to back that up.

  • He's attacked the motives of the district attorney in this case, the individual prosecutors, and has also gone after the judge's daughter in this case.

  • I've seen people be incarcerated during trials for not calling the judge sir or ma'am during proceedings, let alone going outside and violating gag orders on multiple occasions, issuing veiled threats against the judge and members of the staff.

  • The judge bent over backwards in this case to give him a fair trial.

  • So I don't think there's any way that Mershawn forgets any of that.

  • I do think it factors into the punishment that he's going to impose.

  • The judge is the ultimate arbiter of Donald Trump's criminal sentence.

  • He will decide what punishment to impose in this case.

  • There's nobody else that will have any say in that ultimately.

The defendant, Donald J. Trump, is guilty of 34 counts of falsifying business records in the first degree.

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