The U.S. Secret Service is in the business of protecting the president, whether he’s inside the Oval Office or visiting a foreign war zone.
But protecting a former president in prison? The prospect is unprecedented. That would be the challenge if Donald J. Trump — whom the agency is required by law to protect around the clock — is convicted at his criminal trial in Manhattan and sentenced to serve time.
Even before the trial’s opening statements, the Secret Service was in some measure planning for the extraordinary possibility of a former president behind bars. Prosecutors had asked the judge in the case to remind Mr. Trump that attacks on witnesses and jurors could land him in jail even before a verdict is rendered.
And this is why Trump will never see the inside of a jail cell. The logistics are completely unprecedented and unworkable. At most he’ll get house arrest, and personally, I doubt even that.
That’s not the reason why. It would be trivially easy to remove all his privileges if he were convicted of a crime. The reason is because the system is corrupt.