Even with guilty verdict, Trump unlikely to be put behind bars before November's election

By Lukas I. Alpert

Trump will likely be granted wide latitude to appeal his conviction in the Stormy Daniels hush-money case, meaning he may not face prison time for years

Even after being found guilty of trying to cover up hush-money payments to make stories of affairs go away, Donald Trump may well remain a free man until long past November's election.

The former president and the Republican Party's presumptive candidate once again this year, was found guilty by a Manhattan jury on Thursday of all 34 counts of falsifying business records for allegedly helping orchestrate a cover-up of the payments. He faces a sentence of up to four years.

But Trump has many avenues through which to pursue an appeal of the verdict and to slow down sentencing, which will likely keep him out of jail for the foreseeable future, legal experts say.

"An appeal in his case could take many months or even years to resolve," said Peter Pullano, a veteran New York state criminal-defense attorney.

That would certainly push any resolution to Trump's felony conviction past November. And as that case is likely to be the only one of the four criminal cases he faces to go to trial before the election, he will likely face voters as a free man.

A federal case in which Trump is charged with illegally trying to overturn the results of the 2020 election and helping whip up the Jan. 6, 2021, riots at the Capitol building as Congress was preparing to certify Joe Biden's victory, has been postponed pending a ruling by the U.S. Supreme Court on Trump's claims of immunity. A decision could come by late June, by which time it is unlikely that the case would make it to trial before November's election.

A separate federal case in Florida in which Trump is accused of illegally withholding hundreds of classified documents after leaving office and refusing to return them when asked, has also been delayed indefinitely as the judge handling the case has declined to set a trial date citing complications surrounding a number of pretrial motions that need to be resolved first.

And a state case in Georgia alleging that Trump and his advisers engaged in racketeering while illegally attempting to overturn the 2020 election results there also remains on hold. Trump's attorneys in the case are seeking to have prosecutor Fani Willis removed from the case and prosecutors have appealed a ruling that dismissed three charges against Trump.

So that left the New York case as the only one that has so far gone to trial, and is likely to be the only one to be completed ahead of November's election.

With a verdict in place, the case now moves into the sentencing phase, for which several procedural steps must occur before a formal appeals process would even begin.

The judge in the case, State Supreme Court Justice Juan Merchan, on Thursday set a sentencing date of July 11.

After the verdict, Trump vowed to fight the outcome in court.

"This was a disgrace," Trump said outside the courthouse. "This was a rigged trial by a conflicted judge who was corrupt."

"We will fight for our Constitution. This is long from over," he added.

In preparation for Trump's sentencing hearing in July, the probation office will conduct a pre-sentencing investigation in which they will review Trump's background and interview victims, Trump's family and even Trump himself, to make a recommendation for sentencing.

During this period, Trump's lawyers can file any number of motions that could slow the process down, Pullano said.

After that, Merchan will issue his decision on sentencing which could range from a term in prison, home confinement or even a sentence that doesn't include jail time.

If Trump is hit with a prison sentence, he would then likely move to appeal the verdict and sentence, Pullano said. The appellate court could then issue a stay on sentencing until whatever issues Trump's legal team raises are resolved.

"While there are no guarantees, the appellate court could issue a stay of any sentence he might receive. It's not a right, but it is not uncommon," Pullano said. "It'll all be in their hands."

The verdict brings an end to a string of good fortune for Trump, who has faced a long list of legal and financial troubles ahead of his third run for office.

In March, Trump staved off a potentially crushing $464 million legal verdict in a corporate fraud case in New York after an appellate court agreed at the last minute to allow him to put up a far smaller in bond to appeal the ruling.

Short of that decision, Trump faced the very real possibility that New York Attorney General Letitia James could have begun trying to seize his properties.

That same month, his Trump Media & Technology Group (DJT), which owns the social-media platform Truth Social, went public and became a popular meme stock, soaring in value and boosting Trump's net worth by billions.

See more: Trump's DJT stock price tumbles following guilty verdict in hush-money case

The cash infusion came at a time when his campaign fundraising had significantly lagged behind his opponent, incumbent President Joe Biden, and he had been forced to use much of it to pay his legal fees.

How the verdict will impact the presidential campaign was not immediately clear, although Trump's support has remained steady throughout the trial. For much of the year, Trump has maintained a slight polling edge over Biden. Trump has also been able to effectively utilize his legal troubles in order to raise campaign funds in the past.

-Lukas I. Alpert

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05-31-24 0918ET

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