Former President Donald Trump’s lawyer Todd Blanche said the former president “should never, never face a jail sentence” for the conduct he was found guilty of earlier in the day.
Trump was found guilty of 34 felony counts of falsifying business records by a Manhattan jury on Thursday in his hush money trial.
TRUMP GUILTY IN MANHATTAN HUSH MONEY CASE
Speaking with CNN’s Kaitlan Collins, Blanche said a jail sentence would be atypical for a case such as this.
“Look, there’s, there’s a system in place that where you rely on precedent, and somebody like President Trump should never, never face a jail sentence based on this conduct, and it would just kind of confirm what we’ve been saying all along,” Blanche said. “And a lot of people say that we’re wrong and that we’re missing key pieces. But, if, other 77-year-old, first time offenders would never be sent to prison for this conduct.”
The judge in the case, Judge Juan Merchan, announced that sentencing would occur July 11 at 10 a.m. after the jury handed down their verdict. It’s unclear how severe a sentence he will give, though Merchan has previously expressed hesitation about sending the former president to jail. When Trump violated a gag order for the tenth time, the judge threatened to jail him for contempt, but then said, “Mr. Trump, it’s important to understand that the last thing I want to do is to put you in jail.”
Merchan has also said he worries about the safety of those who would have to protect Trump, including Secret Service agents, if he were to go to jail.
In the case, Trump was found guilty of repaying Michael Cohen for a $130,000 hush money payment issued to Stormy Daniels, a porn star and director, to conceal their 2006 affair. He has three other ongoing cases, but this is the first time he’s been found guilty of a crime.
Blanche also addressed why Trump didn’t take the stand, though he previously said he would.
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“That’s a very personal question, to him and to me, honestly, and it’s a very difficult question,” Blanche said. “Of course, he wanted to testify. And I don’t say that because that’s what he has said. He wanted to get his story out. I think the judge had made some decisions before the trial, on the day the trial started, about what, what would be allowed to be asked of him by the prosecutors if he took the stand. And some of those questions were really complicated to answer.”
Ultimately, Blanche said, it was Trump’s decision not to testify, though he told Collins that Trump came to that decision after listening to advice of counsel.
