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.
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That’s the law, they literally can’t demand more; It’s a regressive fine, just like everything else in society. If they could call for a heftier financial penalty, they would.
I’m sure that there are other laws that could apply, like witness intimidation. Contempt can also carry jail time for each instance. The judge has discretion to hold him in jail during the trial as well.
Indeed, he could be locked up for up to 30 days, but I think Merchan wants to avoid feed this asshole’s martyr complex.
Personally I’d rather trump end up like Steve Biko than Nelson Mandela, but perhaps Merchan is far more level-headed than I am.
For context, Frank DiPascali plead guilty to 10 federal charges in 2009 related to his role in Bernie Madoff’s investment scams. He died of lung cancer in 2015 and had yet to be sentenced. That’s how long it takes when there’s a guilty plea, making things relatively easy.
Trump walking around a free man for 8 years is not unusually long. One of the major federal cases, taking classified materials home with him and not giving it back, had no crime occurring until he was out of office.
What I’m saying is that if the timeline is your argument for the government letting him get away with things, then you should find a different argument. This level of waiting is normal.
Why is it normal? And how do we fix it?
There’s lots of reasons. One is that prosecutors have one shot at it–they don’t get to appeal a not-guilty verdict in most circumstances–so they need to build their case very, very carefully. This is arguably a good thing, so maybe we shouldn’t fix it.
One thing we very much should fix, though, is that the size of the federal bench hasn’t been increased in a while, and judges have an overwhelming workload. Doubling or even quadrupling the number of judges would be in order. This will get labeled as “stuffing the bench” by whichever party isn’t currently in power, but it’s a good idea.
The justice system is just slow, though. Consider that depending on the outcome, it can take away everything you own, throw you in jail for years, or in some jurisdictions, end your life. There are reasons for those outcomes (well, except for the death penalty), and that means the process should be very deliberate. This isn’t just about Trump.
I’m convinced that the u.s government machine would assassinate him or poison him, before ever allowing him to set foot in prison.
In the extraordinarily unlikely scenario this Cheeto ever sees a day in prison, it sure as fuck won’t be a normal prison. It will be a white collar situation and honestly he would probably be the only person there. Could you imagine the fucking shit storm putting him in gen pop??
Could you imagine the fucking shit storm putting him in gen pop??
He’d be too hard to protect in gen pop. The most realistic way to put Trump in prison is to make the entire SHU into a “presidential suite” for Trump and his security detail. Everything else goes through regular prison security as normal, anything or anyone entering or leaving the SHU goes through SS in addition.
Why? If he’s a convicted criminal, strip his salary and all his benefits, including the secret service.
Other countries have jailed their leaders. If you’re a felon and get jailed as a former President I figure you should lose everything, SS protection, any pension and any benefits are gone too. Why should a jailed president get those things?
I don’t like it any more than you do. But a former president is still a very significant national security concern. Assassination is quite honestly the most minor concern there is for a former president. Extortion, blackmail, sabotage, espionage, all these things (and more) become a viable threat once USSS protection is gone. There’s a reason why we protect our former POTUS.
Guantanamo bay was practically designed for this scenario. Just dump his ass there and forget about him.
i vote that we just kill the president if they get arrested, it solves more than one problem 🤷
So one thing I don’t fully understand is this: the secret service is required by law to protect the former president, but…is there anything that actually requires the state of New York to accommodate the secret service in doing so?
In theory, couldn’t the state of New York just actually throw Trump in prison, no special privileges, and also no special accommodations for the secret service?
I’m pretty sure the Supremacy Clause would make it a very bad time for whoever is unconstitutionally trying to block federal agents from protecting the criminal-in-chief.
Perhaps, but I don’t think they’d push the issue.
I would LOVE to see that scenario. Trump goes to prison as he deserves and gets his special accommodations all revoked either by the court or the prison or whatever.
Being immune to repercussions of your crimes because you are in a certain position is a very bad thing.
Maybe we would finally get prison reform, then
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.
Maybe they’ll get lucky and his cameras will go off for a while when he’s on “constant suicide watch.”
obviously it wouldnt be prison like real prison but more of like goodfellas prison
“how many onions you put in the sauce? That’s too many onions”
In there wit de two yutes
Why not just build a small presidential prison?
We already have prisons to hold spies.
Just in case any future presidents need it. /s
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I’m imagining the Magneto plastic prison, but in the middle of the Capitol building rotunda.
Even then, I think that they’d have to protect him.
It’s solitary, then. 🤷♂️
Im sure he’ll be very secure without them. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/ADX_Florence
Theyre dumb enough to keep him in eye shot, let em go
Trump will not go to a normal prison / gen pop, etc. Toss that thought from your mind.
Trump will die in a shitty military barracks on a shitty military base where he has no internet connection, access to him can be easily controlled & he can’t blab state secrets.
There is already a precedent here with Nixon’s lawyer.
Other than your first sentence, this is pure fantasy. He’ll never go far enough to trigger actual accountability from those that matter…
I remember when that line was “they’ll never indict an ex-President”.
Trump is going to die in Federal custody if he doesn’t win re-election.
There is not a single example of the DoJ spending this amount of money & manpower to say “oh well”.
I hope you’re right. Not because I care that much about Trump, but because laws matter. You can’t expect people to follow them when one person can brazenly flout them with zero consequences…
Is that Mitchell you’re referencing?
Yes.
