Donald Trump is the first former president to be convicted of a crime and could be the first to go to prison or jail.
Trump was found guilty of 34 felony counts of falsifying business records and faces the risk of prison.
Not only is Trump the first former president to be convicted of a crime, he is also the presumptive Republican nominee in a possible rematch against President Joe Biden in November.
While a guilty plea could result in a prison sentence, he is expected to appeal the jury’s verdict, and legal experts told USA Today that any jail or prison time likely won’t go into effect until the appeal is over, meaning it will be delayed until after the November election.
Here’s what you need to know about possible prison time.
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Live updates:Former President Donald Trump found guilty on all charges in NY criminal hush money case
Will Trump go to jail?
Yes, the felony of falsifying business records can be upgraded to a felon because prosecutors can prove there was intent to commit or cover up another crime, carrying a maximum sentence of four years in prison, but New York State limits sentencing for the type of felony that Trump faced (a Class E felony) to 20 years.
Some New York lawyers and legal experts told USA Today that Trump would likely only receive probation.
“For a defendant with no criminal record, my absolute expectation is probation,” Mitchell Epner, a New York litigation lawyer with decades of experience, said ahead of the trial.
Some say prison or jail time is a real possibility, but that it will probably be less than four years and possibly only a few months.
Norman Eisen, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution who served as special counsel to the House Judiciary Committee during Trump’s first impeachment trial, also co-authored a report that looked at sentencing of other defendants with no criminal records convicted in New York state of falsifying business records.
Eisen noted that in 2015, a construction company executive was sentenced to two days a week in prison for a year for falsifying records to hide payments in a bribery scheme. In 2013, two company executives were sentenced to four to six months in prison for falsifying records to misclassify payroll as an expense in their employer’s larger bribery and fraud scheme.
Expert opinion:If Trump is convicted, will Americans still be able to vote for him?
When will Trump be sentenced?
Judge Juan Merchan is scheduled to sentence Trump at a hearing on July 11.
Defendants are often “detained” until sentencing, meaning they are held in custody while awaiting sentencing.
But legal experts told USA Today that’s unlikely in this case: Even if Trump is taken into custody, he likely won’t be released on bail, set at a few thousand dollars by an appeals court, until his appeal is over.
Could Trump send the Secret Service to jail?
Even before the guilty verdict, there were real questions about whether Trump would face prison because he repeatedly violated a gag order banning him from commenting about witnesses or jurors.
One question is how the Secret Service will continue to work with Trump – as a former president he has round-the-clock protection, but the judge did not have to take that into account when imposing his sentence.
Experts say the judge could come up with creative ways to keep Trump safe and isolated, such as ordering him housed in a hotel block or military base.
