So .. his sentence is literally nothing?
this post was submitted on 10 Jan 2025
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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."
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"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"
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.
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Yup.
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..."
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.
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I'd love to believe you, but apparently, what's legal matters less than a loud, wet fart into a diaper.
As an example, Jeffy Epstein got the death penalty for a lesser charge
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.
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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.
Other people will be held accountable. Just not this entitled criminal rapist insurrectionist president guy.
Rules for thee and not for me.
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Judge wussied out; Lady Justice confirmed absent from the US.
Buckle up, folks. We're in for a wild ride.
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Plot twist: Sentence - Death.
(I can dream)
Anything short of "you're free to go" could give him a stroke...
Could someone explain a non corrupt use of an unconditional discharge? I'm confused how such a sentence is even permissable under the system at all
Because incoming president. It's clear had this been anyone else (Michael Cohen) or had Trump lost the election, he would have done time.
Yeah I understand why in this specific case, the obvious corruption. But the framework of laws allowed this abuse, and I want to know why this is even possible, why is unconditional discharge a sentence that is allowed to be handed out, because to me, I can't see a not corrupt way it could be applied, and it doesn't seem like a new thing, just a rare thing.
From my own research I found this: https://www.msnbc.com/deadline-white-house/deadline-legal-blog/unconditional-discharge-trump-sentencing-hush-money-rcna187044
Which isn't a totally satisfactory answer, but is at least some examples of it being used elsewhere.
Some states have laws with "mandatory minimum sentencing", but in this case it seems either New York doesn't have that, or the laws broken here aren't part of the mandatory minimum guideline.
From a PDF here:
"However, today, while most drug felonies in New York are excluded, minimums still apply for most people convicted of any other felony charge—whether violent or non-violent—if they have a prior felony conviction within the past ten years.
Even absent such a criminal history, minimums continue to apply to most convictions where the current charge is a violent felony."
So in the Trump case, no priors, not violent, minimums don't apply.
NOW - If he has ANOTHER felony, he does have prior convictions and it's a different ballgame.
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.”
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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
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
Why the fuck did they even try him if there's no consequence for a conviction? A waste of everyone's time and money.
Ice been incredibly furious about this all day. This fucking criminal flaunts his lawlessness in everyone's faces and walks away without so much as a fucking fine! Fuck, Luigi had the right ide!
There MIGHT have been if he hadn't won re-election. I guess we'll never know.
Seems our institutions are promoting barbarism at this point. As Luigi put it: it's just power games at this point.
Trump can eat my unconditional discharge.
Fucking stupid country.
I had that unconditional discharge once, shot of penicillin cleaned it right up! ;)
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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..."
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.
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?
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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?
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.
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Corrupt USA's governance is decaying further.
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