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.
I am so fucking angry about this. It’s just going to embolden the orange duck to commit more, worse crimes. He won’t ever leave the White House. This country is so fucked.
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 now
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…”
As an example, Jeffy Epstein got the death penalty for a lesser charge
I’d love to believe you, but apparently, what’s legal matters less than a loud, wet fart into a diaper.
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.
So … his sentence is literally nothing?
“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”
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.
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.
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?
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.
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 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…”
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.
Rules for thee and not for me.
Other people will be held accountable. Just not this entitled criminal rapist insurrectionist president guy.
Seems our institutions are promoting barbarism at this point. As Luigi put it: it’s just power games at this point.
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.
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
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
Trump can eat my unconditional discharge.
Fucking stupid country.
I had that unconditional discharge once, shot of penicillin cleaned it right up! ;)
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
Not surprised the result is nothing but does this have no knock on legal effects? Like is there a chance this gets used as precedence in some way?
So does this mean he’s not allowed to carry a firearm but can still use the nuclear codes?
Correct!
Biggest effect is he’s a felon, so no gun ownership. It’s possible it will constrain foreign travel if certain countries don’t allow felons to enter, that kind of thing.
Neither of these really matter in practice, though.
First, I doubt Trump owns a gun in the first place. He’d find a way to point at the ground, fire, and still miss. Second, no country is going to deny entry to a sitting President of the US. Third, it’s Trump. At this point, he could have a Commando-style arsenal in a shed and they wouldn’t press charges anyway.
Our justice system was unwilling to do anything about Trump hoarding national security secrets in a golf club bathroom. If that didn’t get him a permanent stay at ADX-Florence, they’re not gonna throw his ass in jail over a couple of guns.
Yes, but only if you commit your crime as part of a cover-up while successfully running for president
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.
