Donald Trump Found Guilty On All Counts
Donald Trump Found Guilty On All Counts
What sentence will he get? What are his prospects on appeal? Please discuss.
Welcome to Original Jurisdiction, the latest legal publication by me, David Lat. You can learn more about Original Jurisdiction by reading its About page, and you can email me at davidlat@substack.com. This is a reader-supported publication; you can subscribe by clicking here. Thanks!
This afternoon, former president Donald Trump was convicted of 34 counts of falsifying business records, to cover up an alleged affair with porn star Stormy Daniels that could have hurt his 2016 presidential campaign.
Thoughts? I never practiced state criminal law, so I’m especially interested in hearing from state prosecutors, current and former, and defense lawyers.
So here’s a Notice and Comment (N&C) post, in which comments are open to all readers, not just paid subscribers, for purposes of stimulating discussion. N&C posts are really more about hearing from you than from me. Y’all certainly had a lot to say about Justice Alito’s flags; that post garnered more than 150 comments (and counting).
So please, have at it—thanks!
Thanks for reading Original Jurisdiction, and thanks to my paid subscribers for making this publication possible. Subscribers get (1) access to Judicial Notice, my time-saving weekly roundup of the most notable news in the legal world; (2) additional stories reserved for paid subscribers; (3) transcripts of podcast interviews; and (4) the ability to comment on posts. You can email me at davidlat@substack.com with questions or comments, and you can share this post or subscribe using the buttons below.
I thought we might get a hung jury, with at least one holdout on each side. I was surprised the jury came back this quickly (after around 10 hours of deliberations).
I have practiced in Manhattan as a litigator for 35 years and I know several of the participants in the trial, although I am not at liberty to disclose their names. But what I can say,is the prosecution put on a near perfect case, in terms of their tactics, and the trial judge was fair and evenhanded in his rulings. Several issues arose in the course of trial that will provide viable grounds for an appeal and in NY that process could easily take a year. What will be the result on appeal is difficult to predict.