How Trump's deny-everything strategy could hurt him at sentencing
How Trump's deny-everything strategy could hurt him at sentencing
Donald Trump has had plenty to say since his hush money trial conviction last week. What he hasn’t done is utter any variation of the words that might benefit him most come sentencing time next month: “I’m sorry.”
You're viewing a single thread.
The absolute zero remorse, but rather the opposite in attacking everybody else should be an aggravating circumstance.
Michael Cohen showed remorse, and cooperated, and he still got jail time.
I'd say Trump deserves to serve time more than Cohen did.1 Trump did not cooperate
2 Trump gave the orders
3 Trump shows no remorseIs it really true that: "when you're a star, they let you do it. You can do anything."
To add to this :
4 Trumps gain from the crime was to become the most powerful man in the world
5 Trump would do it again, and is in a position to do it again right now
Given these, how can he not go to jail. A money fine is nothing compared to what he gained and could gain again.
You’re right about Trump deserving far more jail time, don’t get me wrong.
But the charges are not the same, and aren’t even in the same jurisdiction.
I know what I'm about to say is not going to get a ton of love here buuuut....
I'd argue that if you're a former president, you SHOULD get deferential sentencing. Too much potential for abuse otherwise. Imagine if Trump won in 2024 and suddenly Biden's document retention case got re-opened and he got the harshest possible sentence.
Similarly but separately, major party nominees should get deferential sentencing. It's an influence on the political process, and you should err on the side of having less influence. If you lock up a nominee so they can't campaign, it's not really a fair election. ESPECIALLY when it's a crime from 8 years ago.
Like, still get sentenced within the guidelines of the crime, but just towards the more lenient edge. If someone is guilty of murder you can't NOT put them in prison. But if the penalty for the crime doesn't require prison, it's quite a leap to get to prison on a former president, current nominee.
I get that you are trying to explain a method to prevent the system from being abused against political rivals. But Trump was unanimously found guilty of 34 counts by a jury. He attacked the judge, the court and the jury during the trial, and continues to disregard the law. It will send a clear message that he is above the law if he gets a lesser sentence than Cohen.
Presidents are above the law while they're in office. This case is unique because it happened before he was in office. The message that will really be sent is "wait until you're actually president to do would-be illegal shit".
Still worth handing him a harsh sentence, just to put the orange fascist fuck behind bars, but there shouldn't be any misconceptions about some true notion of justice here. Trump is just a moron, and didn't know how to play the game correctly.
Presidents are above the law while they’re in office.
Every time I learn a new thing about our government it looks even more fucked up and unworkable. I know those guys were on laudenum and cocaine and drunk off their asses when they wrote the Constitution but goddamn were they fucked up.
Counterpoint:
FUCK THAT!
no one is above the law or we are not a free fucking country.
It's not "above the law" when the penalty is still within the range of punishments listed in the law broken. The former president and/or nominee would still be punished according to the law, just at the lower bound allowed by judicial discretion.
34 Felonies, interfering with the election that got him to be president.... Yeah, lock his ass up. He's gotten away with enough bullshit his entire life that if it were anyone else that didn't have a rich daddy, they'd been in jail decades ago for decades to come.
Counterpoint is that with great power, comes great responsibility, and those at the top should have even MORE oversight and even harsher penalties when they step out of line. For some reason (well, it's not much of a mystery - it's about power and money), it's completely backwards - those in power are almost never accountable for anything they do.
The guy was found guilty of a crime to influence the election where he won and became President. We don't know how much it influenced the election because he hid it. Who cares how long ago it was if he'll probably do similar stuff for another election? He has a laundry list of shady crap from 2020 as it is.
Trump has shown zero remorse for his actions and breaks the law like most people breath. The fact he's even a frontrunner shows how much American democracy is circling the drain.
But let's not jail him because it seems improper to do aince he's popular, but has no shame or respect for society and should be shielded by decorum and standards he'd never think of offering someone else.