After Donald Trump was convicted of 34 felonies in Manhattan on Thursday, his estranged niece has said he should “absolutely” go to jail.
The former president and presumptive 2024 Republican presidential nominee was found guilty of 34 counts of falsifying business records in connection to a hush money payment made to adult film actress Stormy Daniels during his 2016 election campaign. Trump, who pleaded not guilty, and his allies have repeatedly called the case a form of election interference and, following the jury’s verdict, condemned prosecutors and Judge Juan Merchan.
Now Mary Trump—daughter of Fred Trump Jr.—has weighed in on the situation. She is a frequent critic of the former president and has publicly criticized him over everything from his potential second term to his family history.
Nor do I. The judge has already stated prior to the conviction that jail is not a required sentence for these crimes. I doubt he wants to start a holy war even though he should.
I think that if he’d just kept his mouth shut and not violated the gag order so many times, there’d be a 99.9% chance of no prison time. Because he kept attempting to intimidate people and will undoubtedly commit some sort of stochastic terrorism (again) as a result of the 34 guilty verdicts, now I’m not so sure. Were I a betting man, I’d say that’s down to about 50% with the other 50% being still pretty tame, probably 1-6 months imprisonment + probation. Because home confinement would actually be something of a reward for him, I’m really hoping that he doesn’t just get house arrest where he can watch TV, tweet, and order KFC all day every day.
If the judge allows threats of violence to sway his decision, that’s literally letting the terrorists win. Do the right thing. If people act out as a result, so be it. They’ll get arrested and charged for their crimes next. My realistic expectation is an aggravated temper tantrum, not an assassination conducted with surgical precision. At worst, some gravy seals might shoot a few people, but probably just random civilians because they’re not smart enough to get to anybody specific.