Former President Donald Trump has been charged with 34 felonies for falsifying company documents related to hush money payments made during the 2016 election.
If found guilty and given the maximum punishment, he could spend decades in jail, but it’s unlikely he’ll actually serve any time.
The 34 accusations against Trump are all for first-degree business record falsification, a “class E” felony in New York with a four-year maximum prison term.
The highest penalty that Trump might receive if he were found guilty on all 34 counts would be 136 years in state prison.
Yet, it’s unlikely that will actually occur: As a first-time offender, according to New York criminal law experts, Trump is not anticipated to do any jail time, or if he does, it would only be a few months.
According to the state law that prohibits criminal punishments, judges may impose an alternative sentence of “one year or less” for first-time offenders who commit class D or E felonies, taking into account “the nature and circumstances of the offence and to the history and character of the defendant.”
Also Read :Donald Trump has become the first former US president to be charged criminally.
Even if Trump received a sentence of more than a year in prison, according to Diana Florence, a former prosecutor in the Manhattan district attorney’s office, “he’d spend very little of that in imprisonment” and would probably be freed after a few months.
“I can’t say for absolute 100% certainty there can’t be jail because on the books, he can got to jail,” defense attorney and former Brooklyn prosecutor Arthur Aidala told Insider. But he added, “I do not see a scenario where Donald Trump spends one minute in Jail.”
Trump has denied engaging in any illegal activity and entered a not guilty plea to the charges brought against him, referring to the proceedings as “political persecution and election interference at the greatest level in history.”
Surprising Fact
Even if Trump is convicted, it still wouldn’t necessarily stop him from running for president beyond the logistics, as there’s nothing in the Constitution that bars convicted felons from the White House—though depending on state law, he could be barred from voting for himself.
