The sentencing procedure for our first criminally convicted felon President is due to begin at 9:30 AM Eastern/6:30 AM Pacific.
Let’s keep all the comments and posts wrangled here.
Live coverage should be… Oh, I’m just going to say “everywhere”. CNN, MSNBC, etc. etc. This is history so everyone should have it.
Edit As expected, Trump is appearing remotely.
https://www.cnn.com/politics/live-news/trump-hush-money-sentencing-01-10-25/index.html
Prosecution is asking for more time to read the probation report, apparently they haven’t read it yet.
Prosecution wants “Unconditional Discharge” then layed out every reason why it shouldn’t be unconditional. Trump showed no remorse, believes he’s above the law, that the court has no authority over him.
Defense is now making their presentation.
Trump is now speaking, underlining everything the Prosecution stated. Unrepentant, defiant, disrespectful.
Judge Merchan is addressing the court and CNN cuts away to cover California. LOL.
No live broadcasting the sentencing, but audio will be available after.
7:09 AM - Sentenced to Unconditional Discharge.
So … his sentence is literally nothing?
As a convicted felon, he has the same restrictions felons have, but that’s it.
Surely this means the party of law and order won’t support him, right?
Right?
…right?
Across the street from my development is a retired cop who has a nursery/lawn care business staffed with Mexicans and had a giant, “I’m voting for the felon.”
Do state-level felonies follow to other states?
It varies depending on the restriction.
Gun ownership is a federal restriction, so he can’t legally own a gun in any state.
New York restores voting rights to felons on release provided they re-register, Florida, where Trump lives, follows the convicting state rules.
So, in theory, all he has to do is re-register and that is cleared.
https://www.nycourts.gov/courthelp/criminal/publicOfficeConsequences.shtml
“If you have been convicted of a felony or misdemeanor you may be barred from public office jobs, like a police officer, firefighter, court officer, or notary public. Public offices also include elected and appointed offices, like governor, judge, legislator, and local supervisors and commissioners. Police officers, corrections officers, parole and probation officers and district attorneys are also public offices. But, public office doesn’t always mean a job working for the city or state. If you think you may want a public office job, or you hold one now, it is important to find out if your misdemeanor or felony conviction will prevent you from having the job.”
The office of the President is not restricted in that way. So while Trump may no longer be qualified for Dogcatcher, nothing prevents him from being President.
Gun ownership is a federal restriction, so he can’t legally own a gun in any state.
And yet he gets to control the nuclear football. WTactualF.
That could be a really interesting argument, actually. Strictly speaking, is there anything about “controlling a weapon” with the way the law is written? Or just about owning a gun? Or possession of a weapon? If someone, for example, handed a controller for an armed drone to a felon who could not have a gun, is that a loophole?
Edit: thinking about this a little more and looking into it, the president is Commander in Chief of the military. The military does not generally allow felons, but there is a waiver for that. I think that if push came to shove, there could be a pathway there.
Strictly speaking, is there anything about “controlling a weapon” with the way the law is written? Or just about owning a gun? Or possession of a weapon? If someone, for example, handed a controller for an armed drone to a felon who could not have a gun, is that a loophole?
It depends… how much money and how many slavish cult followers do you have?
Yeah, and couple that with the fact that he literally never needs to pick up a gun again, because our taxes are going to pay for a whole security force to guard him with guns for the rest of his life.
I mean, they already were doing that, but they’re going to continue doing that too.
Nuking the superbowl isn’t going to work as a false flag event. But you have to understand that these people aren’t playing with a full deck of cards and are trying to get a Royal Flush.
Me neither, but at least I’m playing Uno.
He’s never entering a voting booth again in his life. He gives a fuck about no one but himself.
Bullshit. Florida allows exemptions to that law. Do you think Rhonda Santis won’t allow an exemption for him?
Besides, his residence" is literally not allowed to be a residence, so he’s been committing voter proud for a long time.
No what I’m saying is he has no motivation to vote again because his name won’t be on the ballot.
Any other time in history, I’d agree with you,
“Hello, how nice of you to show up. Prosecution has proven you did a bad thing. The law says this bad thing is punishable, but since you think it is not proven we defer to your opinion and will not bother you with repercussions for your actions. Sorry to have wasted your time and have a nice day”
Yeah and they set the stage with the charges that were all not subject to mandatory sentencing. This is what they were looking for the entire time.
No, they set the stage when they took a zillion years to bring up charges in the first place. They could have brought these charges up in 2020 when he left office but they decided to sit on the case forever.
It did take to long but im not sure 2020 is realistic. The investigation was necessary and it does have to take awhile to be thorough. If not you get the opposite problem were the case is not tight enough.
The crimes occured in 2015. It was national news. They had five years.
yeah there were some road blocks around then to deal with.
Yup.
You know, this makes me think of Luigi and how his sentencing will go. I assume: he will be sentenced to public execution, and be used as a martyr for the rich to send a message for us peasants,“this is what happens when you want to play hero”
The only way they get the death penalty is convicting on 1st degree murder w/ terrorism and that’s looking like too high a bar. Too many prospective jurors going “Well, I wasn’t terrorized…”
It’ll be fucking hilarious if their overzealousness causes him to be found not guilty.
This is an instance where jury nullification would be extremely just though I stand by my original statement - the optimal outcome for everyone after the murder would have been if no one was arrested and it remained unsolved.
2nd degree murder looks like a lock to me, at the state level anyway. I haven’t looked at the federal charges yet.
Yea. If that was the only charge I’d agree - but juries rarely (even though they’re supposed to) consider charges in isolation. Throwing Murder1 w/ terrorism on the pile makes it more likely he’s found innocent on all counts.
I’d love to believe you, but apparently, what’s legal matters less than a loud, wet fart into a diaper.
As an example, Jeffy Epstein got the death penalty for a lesser charge
Completely unserious legal system. It’s no wonder people try to hard cancel healthcare executives when the law is this powerless to stop evil. When the next vigilante murder happens, I want the country to remember that no one feels protected by the law when the law continually demonstrates itself to be powerless at stopping the ownership class.
Someti,es, things get so bad that someone has to take direct action. When the law is flauted by those in power, what other recourse do we have?
It’s difficult to accept any laws now. There’s no reason to follow any if the shining example of what this country has to offer is a multiple convicted rapist felon two time impeached orange orangutan who gets rewarded with being president. Again.
You can’t simultaneously say “follow the rules” when the guy saying it is a rule breaker extraordinaire.
Other people will be held accountable. Just not this entitled criminal rapist insurrectionist president guy.
Rules for thee and not for me.
All drugs should be legal.
Laws and rules mean nothing if they aren’t enforced.
Plot twist: Sentence - Death.
(I can dream)
Anything short of “you’re free to go” could give him a stroke…
Don’t get my hopes up
Apparently, it only pays about $30K to give him a stroke and then you have to watch someone else give him a limp-wristed spanking for 4 years
On Friday, Justice Juan M. Merchan sentenced Donald J. Trump to an unconditional discharge, a rare and lenient sentence in New York state courts that still cements Mr. Trump’s status as a felon before his inauguration.
“You’ve been sentenced to… continue doing what you’ve been doing.”
Nice sentence, no sentence.
Not a sentence. Punctuation only.
Trump is shuffling in his chair as prosecutor speaks
Donald Trump is shuffling in his chair while prosecutor John Steinglass speaks. He appears to be leaning forward to look at the screen.
Thank you CNN for the riveting updates
Judge wussied out; Lady Justice confirmed absent from the US.
Buckle up, folks. We’re in for a wild ride.
Chris Smither - Happier Blue:
https://youtu.be/lxTl72XVWso#t=40s
Justice is a lady
Blind, with a scale
And a big letter-opener
She’s been readin’ my mail
I don’t know why this should shame me
But it does, somehow
I don’t care what you say
She don’t look like a lady now
I don’t care what you say
She don’t look like a lady nowLady justice was found murdered on fifth Avenue with no robes, no blindfold, and a fist full of dollars in hand. Maybe you think this is a recent occurrence, but you would be wrong. She was born this way. Deformed and frail from malnourishment.
Maybe you are immune to criminal prosecution as well. Have you tried being a criminal? Me neither. But if it works for one, it should work for us all right? If not us all, then someone else.
Someone else is immune to “justice” in the USA. I wonder who that is…
Listen really closely, and you’ll hear the gentle whisper of the slight disturbance of the air as he gets his gentle, barely-touch-skin wrist slapping.
Followed by six months of him whining about it
The only way Trump whines about this for just six months is if he dies in six months.
Please don’t get my hopes up
Seems our institutions are promoting barbarism at this point. As Luigi put it: it’s just power games at this point.
Trump can eat my unconditional discharge.
Fucking stupid country.
I had that unconditional discharge once, shot of penicillin cleaned it right up! ;)
Christ what a mental image.
You may think that the punishment is nothing, but this level of punishment if he was an immigrant would be enough to deport him under Laken Riley Act. And if you think “Oh, they won’t pass that, the democrats are filibustering it, well…”
This country is such a fucking joke.
Clown country
Why the fuck did they even try him if there’s no consequence for a conviction? A waste of everyone’s time and money.
Ice been incredibly furious about this all day. This fucking criminal flaunts his lawlessness in everyone’s faces and walks away without so much as a fucking fine! Fuck, Luigi had the right ide!
There MIGHT have been if he hadn’t won re-election. I guess we’ll never know.
My hopes are zero and with how thoroughly this reality has let Trump off the hook, I’m still not sure if I’m prepared enough. I’m predicting at this point the court will sentence him to be president for life, just to be sure they don’t appear biased.
Edit: Unconditional discharge. Ok. Sure. Who needs justice to apply to all people equally under the law anyway?
Would be a great Onion article.
