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Trump's lack of remorse and disrespect for the judge could put him in jail, top lawyers reveal
Donald Trump could end up with a jail sentence because of his lack of remorse and disrespect to the court, top criminal lawyers told DailyMail.com.
The former President’s ‘tough guy’ routine may play well with his supporters but the judge in his hush money case could use it to justify sending him to prison, said New York criminal attorney Mark Bederow.
Trump called Judge Juan Merchan a 'devil' during a press conference on Friday tearing into the case he says was 'rigged'.
Merchan could see Trump’s disrespect as an ‘aggravating factor’, said Bederow, who personally thought that jail would be a ‘mistake’
Donald Trump could end up with a jail sentence because of his lack of remorse and disrespect to the court, top criminal lawyers told DailyMail.com
Should the judge choose to give Trump community service he could force him to fund a soup kitchen or a senior center, said high profile attorney Arthur Aidala.
Aidala, who in April won a shock appeal of Harvey Weinstein’s 2020 sex crimes conviction in New York, said that Trump had a decent shot of having the verdict overturned but only in a higher appeal court.
Trump is still reeling from being convicted on all 34 counts of falsifying business records over a $130,000 hush money payment to porn star Stormy Daniels.
He will be sentenced on July 11th at the Manhattan Criminal Court, where he was forced to sit every day during the six week trial.
Bederow said that Merchan will have to weigh Trump’s lack of a criminal history, the fact he is 77 years old and the felonies he was convicted of being the lowest possible, or class E.
In the coming weeks Trump will have to submit to a ‘humiliating’ pre-sentence report where he will be asked about his personal and employment history and whether he has done drugs.
Bederow said: ‘In every pre-sentence report, the important part is does the defendant take responsibility?
‘In a normal case and they say I didn’t do it, the DA will note that and urge the judge to consider it.
‘But here if a probation officer says to Trump can you explain how you react to what happened or did you do this, the probation officer will need to put in earplugs and step back 10ft while Trump will say this is b******. That’s an aggravating factor and the judge will see it’.
According to Bederow, Trump’s ‘constant ranting and raving’ such as calling the judge ‘corrupt’ could tip the sentence into a prison term.
He said: ‘If you put aside that this is Donald Trump, nobody would say it’s a good idea for a defendant potentially facing a prison sentence to be running around accusing the judge of being corrupt.
‘The judge shouldn’t weigh those comments in the sense of personal vendetta but it would be totally appropriate to consider it in terms of Trump’s respect for the system, making the proceedings a circus, not showing respect for the court, having jurors be exposed to things they shouldn’t do.
The former President’s ‘tough guy’ routine may play well with his supporters but the judge in his hush money case could use it to justify sending him to prison, said New York criminal attorney Mark Bederow
‘A lot of times people get credit when they acknowledge their wrongdoing. Trump isn’t going to beg for mercy.
‘He has a political issue - he needs to look strong and defiant politically but that could be a liability in the courtroom’.
Bederow said that it was ‘not realistic’ for Trump to be forced to sweep the subways as some defendants if they are given community service
Nor would Trump be forced to mop the New York City Sanitation Department garage as Naomi Campbell did in 2007 after throwing a mobile phone at her maid.
Bederow said: ‘Think about the logistics and the gawking and people showing up to take pictures. I just don’t think that’s realistic’.
But Aidala said that the judge could find something appropriate if he opts for community service.
He said: ‘The hardest part will be figuring out what the possible sentence would be.
‘I think community service is the best way to put it, but I’m not recommending Donald Trump go and clean the subway.
‘Merchan is known as a tough sentencer but he’s put on the record during the contempt matters that he doesn't want Trump in jail.
‘He’s going to ask for statistics of the average sentence of people with no criminal records being sentenced for class E felonies.
‘The average is going to be a non jail sentence.
‘For Merchan to give him a jail sentence would be beyond the pail’
Trump called Judge Juan Merchan a 'devil' during a press conference on Friday tearing into the case he says was 'rigged'
Aidala has said that Trump had done ‘plenty of stuff to help New York’ such as the Wollman ice skating rink in Central Park.
He said: ‘I wouldn’t be so quick to write him off in terms of his ability to help. If Judge Merchan is thinking about true community service, he could have him fund a soup kitchen or a senior center.
‘That I could see, have him be involved in something like that’.
Bederow said it would be a ‘mistake’ to send Trump to jail.
He said: ‘It will be interesting what the DA recommends - they will probably recommend incarceration.
‘I don’t know that incarcerating a 77 year old man who happens to be a former President, literally at this moment, whether incarcerating him for in essence paying off an adult film actress to keep her mouth shut when she tried to extort him requires incarceration’.
Trump’s lawyers have said they will appeal the verdict and Aidala said that the first point they make should be that the case should never have been brought at all.
Trump will be sentenced on July 11th at the Manhattan Criminal Court, where he was forced to sit every day during the six week trial
Judge Merchan should have instructed the jury to be unanimous on the underlying crime for the falsification of business records, Aidala said.
The judge gave the jury three options: campaign finance laws, tax crimes and election fraud, but said they did not have to agree on which one.
Aidala said that because the case was brought in an unprecedented fashion using untested case law, it should have been held to a higher standard.
Trump has less chance of his appeal succeeding in the Manhattan appellate court, where he will have to appeal first, as that was where Weinstein’s verdict was upheld in a 5-0 ruling.
But in the next court up from that, the New York Appeal Court, Aidala was more hopeful as that was the court which kicked out Weinstein’s conviction.
Aidala said: ‘They’re in a better position to look at the integrity of the charging document
‘I’m challenging the inception of the whole thing, how did this start?
‘I think the court of appeals may look at this and say something here doesn’t seem right, something doesn’t smell right’.