Legal experts on Friday weighed in on potential sentencing for Donald Trump, one day after the former president was found guilty on all 34 felony charges of falsifying business records in his New York City criminal hush money trial.
Falsifying business records in New York comes with a maximum prison sentence of four years, but Judge Juan Merchan could decide for a lesser punishment at Trump's July 11 sentencing.
Jeremy Saland and Duncan Levin, both former Manhattan assistant district attorneys, joined “Mornings On 1” on Friday to offer predictions, with Saland saying he believes Trump will not serve jail time, while Duncan remained on the fence.
“This is an incredibly horrible day for our nation and healing. And fixing and moving forward is far better than dividing further and the collateral ripple effects of a former and potential future president being incarcerated,” Saland said.
But Levin pointed to circumstances that could warrant serious punishment.
“It's an E felony, it's a low-level felony case. He’s a first-time offender, but he violated the gag order 10 times, he's been found in criminal contempt. He has been undermining the judge. He's been threatening the court staff and the prosecutors, and if there's any felony that calls out for some jail time it is this one,” he said.
If it’s not jail time, Levin outlined several alternatives that Merchan could select.
“There could be a conditional discharge, which has certain conditions, there's probation, there's jail, and there's also home confinement. And so it's unlikely to wind up with a major incarceratory sentence, but the judge has unilateral power to really impose any number of those things,” Levin said.
Trump, meanwhile, does have several avenues to appeal the case, and Saland and Levin explained how he might go about it.
“I think they’re gonna look and try to fix things up on the jury even after the fact. But that aside, one of the angles is going to be what we've heard repeatedly about falsifying business records about, just sort of bootstrapping into a potential federal election fraud or crime,” Saland said. “I think it's gonna be related to that second felony elevation piece of falsifying business records, whether it's going to be meritorious is yet to be seen.”
Levin said he expects Trump to “throw his lawyers under the bus as well and try to argue ineffective assistance of counsel, not objecting during all of that Stormy Daniels testimony."