Should Trump Go To Prison?

[River_Dog]

I say no. Here's why:

Take the name out of the conviction and here's what we have: A first-time offender with a clean record found guilty of a nonviolent victimless crime that was elevated from a misdemeanor to a felony by an obviously biased prosecutor. If it were anyone not named Donald Trump, the sentence, if any, would be probation, community service, etc.

The conviction may not help the Democrats defeat Trump anyway. Polls are undecided at best as to how many votes this will actually sway and has the potential of boomeranging and actually helping Trump. It feeds into his witch hunt narrative and is credible evidence of the left weaponizing the judicial system in order to influence an election.

Besides, of all the charges facing Trump, this one is the lamest. The really serious charges are the Georgia election interference case where Trump tried to pressure an official to "find" votes and the federal charges of inciting the Jan. 6th Capitol riot where people actually died.

There is a real threat of a violent, perhaps deadly retaliation, against the judge, the prosecutor, and the jurors, as well as the public in general. Throwing Trump in jail would fuel that fire.

Sentencing is scheduled for July 11th.

[c_hawkbob]

You're completely disregarding his behavior during the trial and Judges typical sentencing guidelines regarding contrition and acceptance of responsibility. Trump has been in contempt of court, very literally, throughout this process. Any other defendant would already have spent time behind bars.

I don't think he will based on statements Engoron has made about the gravity of incarcerating a former President, but I absolutely think he should (and should already have).

[NorthHawk]

I say no. Here's why:

Take the name out of the conviction and here's what we have: A first-time offender with a clean record found guilty of a nonviolent victimless crime that was elevated from a misdemeanor to a felony by an obviously biased prosecutor. If it were anyone not named Donald Trump, the sentence, if any, would be probation, community service, etc.

The conviction may not help the Democrats defeat Trump anyway. Polls are undecided at best as to how many votes this will actually sway and has the potential of boomeranging and actually helping Trump. It feeds into his witch hunt narrative and is credible evidence of the left weaponizing the judicial system in order to influence an election.

Besides, of all the charges facing Trump, this one is the lamest. The really serious charges are the Georgia election interference case where Trump tried to pressure an official to "find" votes and the federal charges of inciting the Jan. 6th Capitol riot where people actually died.

There is a real threat of a violent, perhaps deadly retaliation, against the judge, the prosecutor, and the jurors, as well as the public in general. Throwing Trump in jail would fuel that fire.

Sentencing is scheduled for July 11th.

Looking from the outside, I would agree with this take, however if found guilty of the accusations in the Georgia case (if I understand it correctly) he should.

[River_Dog]

You're completely disregarding his behavior during the trial and Judges typical sentencing guidelines regarding contrition and acceptance of responsibility. Trump has been in contempt of court, very literally, throughout this process. Any other defendant would already have spent time behind bars.

I don't think he will based on statements Engoron has made about the gravity of incarcerating a former President, but I absolutely think he should (and should already have).

OK, so there are other factors that I didn't mention, and probably some that you didn't include, too. But IMO they are relatively small compared to the other facts that I did mention: Lack of a previous record, crime being elevated from a misdemeanor to a felony, biased prosecution. And I completely disagree that another defendant who was not a flight risk as Trump was not would be behind bars prior to a verdict being arrived at.

It looks like you're in the minority:

Lock him up’? Americans say Trump is guilty but lean against prison.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics ... -sentence/

Edit: One other factor that neither of us acknowledged is that it is quite common for judges to delay sentencing, especially in a case where there is no physical threat to the public, until all appeals are exhausted. Trump is widely expected to appeal this verdict.

[River_Dog]

Looking from the outside, I would agree with this take, however if found guilty of the accusations in the Georgia case (if I understand it correctly) he should.

Thanks for throwing in your 2 cents worth. I know that you think that American politics are none of your business, but I personally appreciate an outside perspective. As I said in another thread, a friend of mine from Japan is coming to visit us in a few months and I'm anxious to hear how folks over there view us stupid Americans.

I completely agree that a stiff sentence would be appropriate if Trump were found guilty in the Georgia election interference case. It was a blatant attempt to subvert the democratic process and can't be tolerated. However, that case won't come to trial until after the election, so if Trump is elected POTUS then found guilty, I would delay his serving time until he was out of office. It would be a fitting end to his legacy if he were to die behind bars.

[Aseahawkfan]

I think he should go to jail, but not for this hush money case. This hush money case is weak case that looks like nothing but a political hit job. We could throw a bunch of people in jail for hush money payouts in politics now, in the past, and certainly in the future. Hush money is one of those crimes like prostitution that gets no one particularly riled up and just makes the justice system look ridiculous.

The man should be in jail for his election tampering in Georgia which has clear phone evidence. He should be in jail for his handling of January 6th and encouraging his vice president to violate election laws by not confirming the election and spreading a lie he could not prove that led to violence.

This hush money crap is another example of Democrats mismanaging power by creating a huge hoopla over ridiculous charges like hush money and falsifying records which will just inure the Republican voter base to the more serious charges that should be brought against him for real crimes. It's going to make the real charges look like a political hit job as the Democrats have investigated and hammered on Trump so much his voter base just looks at every indictment as a political hit job. It's like the little boy that cried wolf so many times, no one believed him when the real wolf came. That's what the Democrats have done for Trump.

If he escapes and wins again, Democrats helped create the situation for his win by not focusing heavily on the real bad stuff Trump did like the election tampering and the January 6th riots.

[River_Dog]

I think he should go to jail, but not for this hush money case. This hush money case is weak case that looks like nothing but a political hit job. We could throw a bunch of people in jail for hush money payouts in politics now, in the past, and certainly in the future. Hush money is one of those crimes like prostitution that gets no one particularly riled up and just makes the justice system look ridiculous.

The man should be in jail for his election tampering in Georgia which has clear phone evidence. He should be in jail for his handling of January 6th and encouraging his vice president to violate election laws by not confirming the election and spreading a lie he could not prove that led to violence.

This hush money crap is another example of Democrats mismanaging power by creating a huge hoopla over ridiculous charges like hush money and falsifying records which will just inure the Republican voter base to the more serious charges that should be brought against him for real crimes. It's going to make the real charges look like a political hit job as the Democrats have investigated and hammered on Trump so much his voter base just looks at every indictment as a political hit job. It's like the little boy that cried wolf so many times, no one believed him when the real wolf came. That's what the Democrats have done for Trump.

If he escapes and wins again, Democrats helped create the situation for his win by not focusing heavily on the real bad stuff Trump did like the election tampering and the January 6th riots.

I agree. Although I strongly agree that Trump's guilty of the hush money case, it's blatantly obvious to anyone except hard core Democrats that it was a political hit job. Alvin Bragg is a registered Democrat who has a reputation for reducing violent felony crimes to misdemeanors, and now he's taking a white-collar victimless crime and elevating it to a felony?

Plus, there isn't the hard evidence of Trump's personal involvement that there is in the other two cases, such as "All I want to do is this. I just want to find 11,780 votes, which is one more than we have because we won the state," or "We fight like hell. And if you don't fight like hell, you're not going to have a country anymore." People died in that riot, and a number of others were threatened with their lives. Can you imagine what kind of spectacle might have happened if that mob who Trump incited would have found Nancy Pelosi and Mike Pence?

[Aseahawkfan]

I agree. Although I strongly agree that Trump's guilty of the hush money case, it's blatantly obvious to anyone except hard core Democrats that it was a political hit job. Alvin Bragg is a registered Democrat who has a reputation for reducing violent felony crimes to misdemeanors, and now he's taking a white-collar victimless crime and elevating it to a felony?

Plus, there isn't the hard evidence of Trump's personal involvement that there is in the other two cases, such as "All I want to do is this. I just want to find 11,780 votes, which is one more than we have because we won the state," or "We fight like hell. And if you don't fight like hell, you're not going to have a country anymore." People died in that riot, and a number of others were threatened with their lives. Can you imagine what kind of spectacle might have happened if that mob who Trump incited would have found Nancy Pelosi and Mike Pence?

The little boy who cried wolf is a moral tale for a reason. Right now the Democrats are looking a whole lot like the little boy that cried wolf. They been painting so many Republican presidents as racists, sexists, and bad people for the past 20 years, when a real bad person gets into office the Republicans are so used to the Democrats calling their presidential choices these bad names they just view it as business as usual for the Democratic media.

Not like Fox News isn't the same, so I'm waiting for a real socialist Democrat populist worse than anything we seen to get into office to watch the same effect by the Democratic voters where some socialist militant starts doing awful things and no one cares on the Democrat side because Fox News has painted every candidate as a socialist nut so the Democratic voter is no longer listening to problems when they are real.

Good job political media on completely desensitizing voters to any political criticism so they don't know the difference between what is a real problem or not.