After more than a year of ‘witch hunt’ claims, vicious attacks on prosecutor Alvin Bragg, and endless delay tactics by his defense team, Donald Trump is officially the first former U.S. president to become a convicted felon. In a stunning verdict on Thursday evening, a New York jury found Trump guilty on all 34 counts of falsifying business records in the historic Stormy Daniels hush money trial in Manhattan.
To help understand what this means for Trump’s future, Zeteo brought in two legal experts for a town hall, where they answered questions from both Mehdi and paid subscribers.
David Henderson, a civil rights attorney and former prosecutor, laid out how the former president’s rights might change now that he is convicted, reminding viewers that there are many states where felons are not allowed to vote.
“He can be elected by Texans, but he couldn’t actually cast a vote if he were actually here in Texas,” Henderson said.
As questions begin to circulate over whether Trump will be imprisoned or not, former Manhattan prosecutor Diana Florence explained how even if Trump is sentenced to prison in New York - which she believes he will be - it may take an extremely long time for him to actually be detained, given the appeal process in New York.
“I don’t think that he won’t go to prison… Let’s just say I’m in my early fifties and I think it will be [in] my later fifties,” Florence said.
When asked what it will say if Trump does not end up serving prison time, Henderson responded that, “it doesn’t say much about equal justice under the law.”
“This is not the way a defendant is typically treated in the American judicial system,” he said. “So if he doesn’t serve time on the one hand, it’s an injustice. At the same time, given everything he’s gotten away with up to this point, I do think it is meaningful for him to be a convicted felon.”
Watch the full discussion with these two leading legal experts, hosted by Mehdi, above.
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‘I Do Think The Judge Will Sentence Him To Prison’: Legal Experts React To Trump Guilty Verdict In Zeteo Town Hall