Special Counsel Jack Smith’s cases against former President Donald J. Trump may be stalled but there is still hope that he could be jailed before the election, according to MSNBC’s Andrew Weissmann.
The underhanded former federal prosecutor dubbed “Mueller’s pitbull” joined CNN’s Wolf Blitzer on Tuesday’s edition of “The Situation Room” to discuss the upcoming case against the presumptive GOP nominee in a New York City courtroom presided over by another partisan judge, this time with the potential for having Joe Biden’s election opponent locked up.
Two weeks before the trial over alleged “hush money” payments to pornographic movie queen Stormy Daniels is set to begin, Weissmann told the CNN anchor that Judge Juan Merchan could send Trump to jail because he’s been insufficiently deferential to the judges and prosecutors conducting their political lawfare against him.
(Video: CNN)
“If Trump were to be convicted in this case, what kind of penalty potentially could he be looking at?” Blitzer asked.
“You know, he could be looking at jail,” Weissmann replied. “This is one where the judge I think is going to be looking at the rule of law to see how other people were treated, other people with a similar criminal background. I think this is an area where Donald Trump’s pretrial behavior is going to be relevant.”
“Muller’s pitbull” then predicted that Merchan – whom Trump has called corrupt – could throw the book at the defendant at sentencing if he’s convicted.
“If you have someone who’s contrite, if you have someone who shares that he’s respectful of the rule of law, that this was an aberration, that is something that the court can take into account,” he said. “But if you think that the defendant actually is running basically as an outlaw and is basically thumbing his nose at the judicial process and shows no sign of remorse and essentially is a recidivist, those are factors that a judge can consider.”
“And I am sure that a judge like Judge Merchan, if there were to be a conviction, is going to factor all of that in. But it’s just way too soon to say whether it would actually constitute jail time,” Weissmann told Blitzer, adding that Trump’s Secret Service protection wouldn’t be a problem with sending him to jail.
“I think the fact that the former president has Secret Service protection is not going to be something that prevents him doing jail time,” he predicted. “That’s something that can be worked out. It is a factor but it is not something that is preclusive I think, for any judge considering whether to send Donald Trump to jail if there is a conviction.”
Judge Merchan just hit Trump with a new restrictive gag order, a move that will further stack the deck against him in the trial in which the former president’s “guilt” is a foregone conclusion given the toxically polluted New York justice system.
“I just was informed that another corrupt New York Judge, Juan Merchan, GAGGED me so that I can not talk about the corruption and conflicts taking place in his courtroom with respect to a case that everyone, including the D.A., felt should never have been brought. They can talk about me, but I can’t talk about them??? That sounds fair, doesn’t it? This Judge should be recused, and the case should be thrown out. There has virtually never been a more conflicted judge than this one. ELECTION INTERFERENCE at its worst!” Trump said on Truth Social on Tuesday.
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