Donald Trump will be the first former president to face a criminal trial, judge rules

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Donald Trump will be the first former president to face a criminal trial, judge rules
motherjones.com

Trump’s New York case will begin in March

A New York judge ruled Thursday that Donald Trump will stand trial in March on charges related to the Stormy Daniels coverup. Assuming the case goes forward as scheduled, Trump will be the first former president ever to be criminally tried. It will also be the first criminal case to slot in place among the complicated judicial calendar Trump is facing in this election year, and it means Trump will almost certainly face a jury before Election Day. In three other jurisdictions—Georgia state court and federal courts in Florida, and Washington, D.C.—Trump has been indicted on charges related to the 2020 elections and his retention of classified documents, but the timetable for those cases remains unclear.

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Is there any chance on earth that he actually goes to jail for even a day?

I think it's way more likely that he gets sentenced to house arrest, which he could serve at Mar a Lago. The other option is to have Secret Service agents following him around inside a prison trying to protect him from the other inmates (and possibly the guards), and I don't think either the prisons or the Secret Service want to deal with that.

Actually they could throw him in a maximum security prison and condem him to solitary confinement (for his own protection you know) and that would negate the need for the Secret Service

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"Yeah, he's a convicted felon, but we can't put him in jail because that would inconvenience the Secret Service."

Nope. Sorry it's a burden for them, but they can figure it out. Make a prison out of the brig on an abandoned military base in the middle of nowhere with him as the only prisoner. It worked for Rudolph Hess.

It's really not even that big of a burden. They already have wings for people like former cops and child molesters, so he'll fit in nicely. They'll just need a chair for the SS detail.

Prison is for poor people, not presidents. I think most people understand that not everyone is equal under the law at this point in time.

Ulysses S. Grant set the precedent that a sitting president can be prosecuted in 1872 while he was president, and got pulled over, for the third time, for "speeding on a horse inside the city limits of Washington DC." He told the officer that attempted to let him go, that Congress had literally passed article 1983 the previous year, and that even The POTUS doesn't have immunity. Sure it was a speeding ticket, but that's still precedent, with a statute to back it up.

The statute in question needs to be reviewed by The SCOTUS, as they were provided incorrectly edited wording of that statute, ommiting 16 crucial words of the law, in the case of Harlow vs. Fitzgerald in 1982, and illegally set up the Qualified Immunity Doctrine.

I thought he had to forfeit Mar A Lago because he falsely claimed it to be a primary residence which it isn't

Not forfeited but he's convicted of fraud for the false valuation, and the sum is high enough he may be forced to sell it to cover the judgement

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For this? No. For the Georgia case? It's a real possibility if he doesn't get elected.

If he gets jail time for a state case he can't pardon himself. It'd be interesting how the state would handle it. Would they let him defer his prison sentence until after his term?

There's no precedent whatsoever, so no one knows what would happen. Meanwhile Trump would absolutely use every tool at his disposal as president to disrupt the process. It's hard to see that not heading into a constitutional crisis.

I think Fani Willis screwed that up.

None at all. As a last resort they'll (successfully) make a incompetency plea, which is true. The man isn't competent enough to tie his shoes without adult supervision.

In a sane world, an incompetency plea would bar someone from office

That would mean:

Too incompetent to be found guilty of a crime, but still somehow competent enough to hold arguably the most important position in the world.

Please make it make sense.

That's not how incompetency pleas work.

He has dementia. It is how incompetency pleas work.

Not really.

A diagnosis of dementia would not automatically preclude someone from standing trial. Being incompetent to stand trial means that you can't assist your defense. I think that's a pretty high bar. Trump is obviously not one of our sharpest minds but he can't be competent enough to make speeches on TV (even if they are rants) while simultaneously be incompetent such that he can't discuss his case with his lawyers.

Citation needed.

I mean, have you not been paying attention for the last 4 years? He's been on a mental decline for a while now. It's just a matter of time before he has a sundowning tantrum on live TV.

Also, I know serval people in the mental health and elderly care fields, and they've known for a while now.

Being an asshole doesn't mean you have dementia, nor does that fact that you don't like Trump mean that he has a degenerative mental condition. Sorry, believing that is on the same level as believing qanon.

All you have to do is watch interviews of him from the 2000s to know that he's experienced significant cognitive decline.

He's always been a stupid narcissistic asshole, but he's clearly demented.

Also, I guess you missed the part where people with experience in the subject confirmed what I said.

Yes, but not in this case. Some of the other cases will get him there and it will be glorious.

But if he becomes president he can grant himself immunity correct?

One of those unanswered questions is whether a president can pardon themself. This has never been tried so it's never been tested. I presume that the answer is no.

I thought the consensus among experts was that a sitting president can do that.

He still couldn't pardon himself for state crimes in GA though. Even the governor can't pardon him in GA. That state requires a board to approve it or something like that.

The most likely situation is barred from running for President while he continues to spew lies and vitriol from the sidelines. We also can’t ignore the possibility of his progeny running for office thanks to the dynastic view these scumbag wealthy types tend to take of their money and power.

There is nothing about this case that would bar him from running for office. This is unrelated to Jan 6.

No. Best we can hope for is to bog him down in appeals and lawsuits, till his heart pops from a big Mac

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