Last week the weird old guy from Florida was sentenced in his hush money trail

[thewayne]

Last Friday the sadly (for us) once and future president was ordered back to court in New York, and appeared via a video link from Florida. This occasion was to close the case: this occasion was for Judge Merchan to sentence the convicted felon, who was found guilty of all 34 counts of conspiracy other crimes of paying hush money to Stormy Daniels, porn actress, to try to cover up the affair that he had with her after his current (third) wife gave birth to their son.

The sentence bestowed on the weird guy was unconditional discharge. Basically it means that the conviction was not voided by the judge, but there's no real punishment to be imposed. No jail or confinement, no fine, no probation. Needless to say, the weird guy and his attorneys are still going to file endless appeals to try and get the conviction overturned. However, Judge Merchan did a heck of a job trying to be as scrupulous as possible to ensure a fair and procedurally-accurate trial to reduce the chance of error and an appeal overturning the conviction. It's going to be a big lift to get this trial thrown out.

I'm not sure what this does to his voting or gun ownership rights, also in limbo is his right to possess a liquor license for his properties. He's a convicted felon regardless of no punishment.

Regardless, the weird old guy will still go into the history books as the only president sworn into the highest office in our land as a convicted felon.

https://www.huffpost.com/entry/trump-sentenced-hush-money-trial_n_677965efe4b08d06b7289727

Comments

[kaishin108]

"his voting or gun ownership rights, also in limbo is his right to possess a liquor license for his properties. He's a convicted."

I was wondering about this too.

[thewayne]

There's some cross-jurisdictional issues here.  He was convicted in New York as he was living there, a citizen and registered voter there.  It was later that he moved to Florida and formally changed his residency and voter registration.  Not owning a gun is a federal ban, so that's pretty clear-cut.  As I read it before, Florida law says a person convicted of a felony in another state might not lose their voting rights in FL, that's a little unclear.  But the liquor law is different.  Almost every state in the nation prohibits felons and people convicted of 'moral turpitude' crimes from holding liquor licenses as they see that as a way to help keep the mob out of owning bars.  And Florida and New Jersey are amongst those.

[kaishin108]

You have checked into it. I think he will find a work around for Maragalo though regarding the alcohol.

[thewayne]

He'll probably just have one of his sons pick up the license.  I looked into some of these issues when he was initially convicted on the 34 counts last year.  He immediately had to surrender his firearms to Federal agents, I think he had three handguns and a license for them from either the State of New York or New York City.

[spiralsheep]

Hi person I know as a friend of a friend. Thank you for the simplified point-by-point explainer. I've been trying not to give US politics my attention, which belongs elsewhere, but it is useful to know a few minimal details.

[thewayne]

You're quite welcome!

[disneydream06]

Such a laughable sentencing. UGH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Hugs, Jon

[thewayne]

It was either unconditional parole or void the conviction.  If he'd sentenced him to any sort of confinement, he could have easily have gone to the SCOTUS and said 'HEY, I'm the PRESIDENT HERE!  This doesn't work, I can't carry out the job I was elected for!' and they would have overturned the conviction.  This gives the SCOTUS a much weaker lever to overturn said conviction.  It's far from ideal, but as I said, it's going to be a big lift for his team to get the conviction overturned - because it was not ONE conviction, it was THIRTY-FOUR CONVICTIONS.

[dewline]

Enter the Count from Sesame Street, accompanied by lightning and thunder!

[thewayne]

That would be awesome!

[disneydream06]

That makes sense, but it's still a mockery of justice, imho... :(

[thewayne]

I agree, but it is what it is.  The bastard has skated from consequences his entire life, and it looks like he's going to continue skating until his dying day.

[disneydream06]

Dear Karma,
We are so ready. :o

[thewayne]

There is one bit of karma that has been served up his entire life, even if he doesn't realize it: he has no friends.  A transactional person like that never does.  He uses people, people use him.  That's it.  Maybe he's fine with it, I don't know and don't really care.  He has people at his beck and call because either he pays them, or they expect to profit from it in some other way.  Not because they actually like them.  All evidence indicates he's never done anything to engender friendships.

[disneydream06]

That is so true. :o
And like you said, I could care less if he's friendless. :o

[silveradept]

We knew this was going to be the result, but it still stings to see that someone who should rightly never have been eligible for the office manage to skirt consequences for his convictions because he was elected to the office.

[thewayne]

As I said to Jon, he's had a curiously blessed life, skirting the consequences for his action.  And it looks like he'll be able to continue to escape those consequences until he ceases to draw breath.

[silveradept]

He's an excellent example of how the system is arranged to make she people like him only fail up and never have to suffer consequences from anything they do. The classic group that the law protects and does not bind. He's not as good at playing the game as others, but he definitely knows how to rig the results in his favor.

[thewayne]

Completely agree.