Connect with us

Sports

Could Trump face time behind bars for his conviction on New York charges?

blank

Published

on

blank
Former U.S. President Donald Trump exits Trump Tower to attend his criminal trial over charges that he falsified business records to conceal money paid to silence porn star Stormy Daniels in 2016, at Manhattan criminal court, in New York City, U.S., May 30, 2024. REUTERS/Eduardo Munoz 

BY LUC COHEN

Now that the jury in Donald Trump‘s criminal trial has made the historic decision to convict him, the judge overseeing the case will soon face a monumental choice: whether to sentence the 2024 Republican presidential candidate to time behind bars.

After the 12-member jury on Thursday handed down its verdict finding Trump guilty on all 34 counts of falsifying business records he faced, Merchan set the former U.S. president’s sentencing for July 11.

Prison time is rare for people convicted in New York state of felony falsification of business records, the charge Trump, a businessman-turned-politician, faced at his six-week trial.

But legal experts said precedent can only be so helpful in guiding Merchan‘s decision on the appropriate sentence in the first criminal trial of a U.S. president past or present. “Typically this is not the kind of case where you would expect a first-time white-collar offender to receive a sentence of incarceration,” said New York defense lawyer Andrew Weinstein, who in 2009 represented a man sentenced to three years’ conditional discharge after pleading guilty to falsifying business records as part of a check-cashing scheme.

Advertisement

“But everything about Trump is different, so I don’t think you can look historically at other sentences because he’s just a different animal,” Weinstein said.

Trump, 77, was found guilty of falsifying his New York-based real estate company’s books to cover up his former lawyer Michael Cohen‘s $130,000 payment to porn star Stormy Daniels to buy her silence before the 2016 election about a sexual encounter she alleges she had with Trump a decade earlier.

Prosecutors say the hush money payment was part of a broader scheme in violation of campaign finance and tax laws to pay off people with potentially negative information about Trump.

Trump had pleaded not guilty to the 34 felony counts. He denies having sex with Daniels and will almost certainly appeal the conviction.

The maximum sentence for falsification of business records is four years imprisonment.

Advertisement

Six legal experts – including defense lawyers and former prosecutors – told Reuters it was rare for people without criminal histories – like Trump – who are charged solely with falsification of business records to be sentenced to prison time in New York, with punishments such as fines being more common.

But they said such a sentence would not be impossible, and cautioned that it was too early to predict what punishment Trump could face if convicted.

In deciding the sentence, Merchan may weigh the underlying seriousness of the charges due to their ties to the 2016 election, as well as Trump’s decision to go to trial rather than accept responsibility by pleading guilty.

In a press conference after the verdict, Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg, who brought the charges, declined to say whether his office would seek a prison sentence.

Bragg’s office said in a court filing last November that it had brought 437 cases including a felony charge for falsifying business records in the decade before Trump was indicted in March 2023.

Advertisement

Reuters has not reviewed each of those cases, some of which involve corporate defendants who by definition cannot be incarcerated.

But records maintained by the Manhattan criminal court show that at least four defendants who pleaded guilty to that charge during that period were sentenced to a year or less behind bars. Three of those defendants, unlike Trump, were also charged with crimes such as fraud and grand larceny.

The fourth individual, a construction executive who pleaded guilty in December 2015 to one count of falsifying business records as part of a commercial bribery scheme, was sentenced to one year of intermittent imprisonment, court records show. That meant spending Monday evenings through Wednesday mornings at New York City’s Rikers Island jail, but he was free otherwise.

“It’s probably not that often that someone’s getting significant jail time on this particular charge,” said Tanisha Palvia, a former prosecutor in the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office.

“But because there’s so much discretion involved in this, it’s not unheard of that a person with no criminal history, a first-time offender, can get prison time,” said Palvia, now a defense lawyer with law firm Moore & Van Allen.

Advertisement

‘SENTENCING IS AN ART’

Merchan has acknowledged the possibility of incarcerating Trump.

“Everyone knows that if Mr. Trump is found guilty in this case he faces a potential jail sentence,” the judge said during jury selection on April 16, in explaining why he was dismissing a prospective juror who had written “lock him up” in a 2017 social media post about Trump.

Attempting to incarcerate a former president who may win the presidency again in November and is entitled to round-the-clock U.S. Secret Service protection would pose unprecedented challenges, though it is a conundrum other countries have faced.

In warning Trump on May 6 that he would be jailed for any further violations of a gag order restricting his public comments about jurors and witnesses, Merchan said he worried about how any such decision would affect court officers, corrections officials and Secret Service agents.

“Incarceration is truly a last resort for me,” Merchan said. “I worry about them and about what would go into executing such a sanction.”

Advertisement

At the time, Trump had been fined $1,000 for each of 10 violations of the gag order. To be sure, any sentence of incarceration would likely be greater in length and significance than a stint behind bars for gag order violations.

Another factor that Merchan may consider is Trump’s decision to take his case to trial. While any criminal defendant has the right to do so, judges often look favorably on people who admit culpability and express remorse.

“It’s hard to predict, but I would agree that it’s not an impossibility,” Rebecca Roiphe, a professor at New York Law School and a former prosecutor in the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office, said of a possible Trump incarceration. “Sentencing is an art, not a science.”

-Reuters

Advertisement

Kunle Solaja is the author of landmark books on sports and journalism as well as being a multiple award-winning journalist and editor of long standing. He is easily Nigeria’s foremost soccer diarist and Africa's most capped FIFA World Cup journalist, having attended all FIFA World Cup finals from Italia ’90 to Qatar 2022. He was honoured at the Qatar 2022 World Cup by FIFA and AIPS.

Continue Reading
Advertisement

Sports

Algerian Handball Team Boycotts Arab Championship over  Morocco’s Jerseys

blank

Published

on

blank
Algeria's U17 handball team

The Algerian U-17 national handball team has withdrawn from the Arab Championship in protest at the Moroccan team wearing a jersey featuring a full map of Morocco.

The news comes as Algeria’s  hostility towards Morocco appears to be taking a new turn, with the country increasingly resorting to the politicization of sport to settle political scores after suffering setbacks on the diplomatic front.

Ahead of a CAF Confederation match in Algeria last week, the Algerian Football Federation (FAF) confiscated CAF-approved jerseys worn by Moroccan club RS Berkane because they featured the undivided map of Morocco.

On Tuesday, the Algerian and Moroccan national teams were scheduled to compete on the third day of the under-17 Arab Championship. 

However, the Algerian team’s absence left the Moroccan side without opponents.

Advertisement

Earlier in the day, Karima Taleb, the president of the Algerian Handball Federation, told the news website Ennahar Online that the team would boycott the match “if officials of the opposing team decide to play with a jersey bearing their fake map.” 

In recent years, Algeria has consistently used sporting events to push for its political agenda and undermine the notable diplomatic breakthroughs Morocco has achieved on the Western Sahara question.

While hosting the African Nations Championship (CHAN) last year, the Algerian regime took its obsessive Morocco-bashing to the next level. 

After denying the Moroccan team the right to participate in the continental tournament and defend their title, the Algerian authorities added insult to injury by turning the tournament’s opening ceremony into a political platform to broadcast support for the Polisario Front, the Algiers-backed separatist group seeking independence in southern Morocco. 

Advertisement
Continue Reading

SPECIAL REPORT

Gara Gombe’s firm firms agreement to upgrade Gombe University’s facilities

blank

Published

on

Gara Gombe’s firm firms agreement to upgrade Gombe University’s facilities

Green White Green (GWG) Sports Center Nigeria Limited, a company run by former Gombe State Football Association chairman, Gara Gombe has signed an understanding with the Gombe State University to upgrade the institution’s sports facilities.

According to Gara Gombe, the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU)  was signed last week Wednesday. The aim is to provide and also upgrade existing facilities for the benefit of young sport stars in Gombe State.

The MOU was jointly signed by the university’s Vice Chancellor, Prof. El Nafaty and Gara Gombe.

Prof. El Nafaty noted that Gombe State University has now become dependable partner with the Green White Green Sports Center for the upgrading of sporting facilities over six months ago.

He reiterated there should be enough liaison engagement between the two parties with the aim of enhancing sports in the university especially the track and field which is rare in Nigerian universities.

Advertisement




Gara Gombe who is also the Gombe State Athletics Association chairman, remarked that more sports facilities in Gombe are urgently needed considering that there is just one stadium in the state locates in Pantami.

“This is grossly inadequate.” He therefore called for  concerted efforts  to create alternative playing grounds for the development of all sporting talents.

 

Continue Reading

SPECIAL REPORT

Gara Gombe’s firm firms agreement to upgrade Gombe University’s facilities –

blank

Published

on

Gara Gombe’s firm firms agreement to upgrade Gombe University’s facilities

Green White Green (GWG) Sports Center Nigeria Limited, a company run by former Gombe State Football Association chairman, Gara Gombe has signed an understanding with the Gombe State University to upgrade the institution’s sports facilities.

According to Gara Gombe, the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU)  was signed last week Wednesday. The aim is to provide and also upgrade existing facilities for the benefit of young sport stars in Gombe State.

The MOU was jointly signed by the university’s Vice Chancellor, Prof. El Nafaty and Gara Gombe.

Prof. El Nafaty noted that Gombe State University has now become dependable partner with the Green White Green Sports Center for the upgrading of sporting facilities over six months ago.

He reiterated there should be enough liaison engagement between the two parties with the aim of enhancing sports in the university especially the track and field which is rare in Nigerian universities.

Advertisement




Gara Gombe who is also the Gombe State Athletics Association chairman, remarked that more sports facilities in Gombe are urgently needed considering that there is just one stadium in the state locates in Pantami.

“This is grossly inadequate.” He therefore called for  concerted efforts  to create alternative playing grounds for the development of all sporting talents.

 

Continue Reading

Most Viewed