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A conviction of former President Donald Trump in all three of the recent indictments could be a "death sentence," according to a legal expert.
"Trump is 77 years old, so any significant sentence will essentially be a death sentence for the former president," Neama Rahmani, president of West Coast Trial Lawyers and former federal prosecutor, told Newsweek on Wednesday.
Special Counsel Jack Smith on Tuesday announced a federal indictment of Trump in connection with the January 6, 2021, riot at the U.S. Capitol and the former president's alleged efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 election. The indictment listed several charges against Trump, including conspiracy to defraud the United States, conspiracy against rights, conspiracy to obstruct an official proceeding and obstruction of and the attempt to obstruct an official proceeding.
"The attack on our nation's Capitol on January 6, 2021, was an unprecedented assault on the seat of American democracy," Smith said when announcing the indictment. "It was fueled by lies, lies by the defendant targeted at obstructing a bedrock function of the U.S. government: the nation's process of collecting, counting and certifying the results of the presidential election."
In addition to Tuesday's indictment, Trump was indicted by Smith earlier this year for his alleged mishandling of classified documents that were recovered from his Mar-a-Lago residence last summer, as well as an indictment by the Manhattan District Attorney's Office for allegedly falsifying business records during the 2016 campaign.
"Possible jail time for Donald Trump if he's convicted of one, some, or all the criminal cases is a fascinating but speculative business," former federal prosecutor and ex-Palm Beach County [Florida] state attorney Michael McAuliffe told Newsweek. "As for the federal cases charging Trump with crimes, the sentencing guidelines––which assign numerical values to various factors to create a range for a presumptive sentence––will prove inadequate."
McAuliffe went on to explain that sentencing guidelines are used to have similar defendants receive comparable sentences, but for Trump, "the crimes and the defendant are singular," he said.
"It's too early to predict possible sentences. That's not only too far ahead in the book to read, those chapters haven't been written yet," McAuliffe added.
Similarly, Rahmani said that sentencing guidelines are only advisory and noted that the judges "have a lot of discretion to sentence Trump up to the statutory maximum if he is convicted, and to run the sentences consecutively or concurrently."
"The federal charges in particular carry significant potential sentences or 5, 10 or 20 years in prison, even if Judge [Aileen] Cannon, a Trump appointee, decides to sentence Trump to probation," Rahmani said, adding that Judge (Tanya) Chutkan has a reputation for being harsh on sentencing in Capitol riot cases.
Cannon is handling classified documents case, Chutkan is handling the January 6 case and Judge Juan Merchan is overseeing the case in New York.
Legal political analyst Andrew Lieb also spoke to Newsweek about potential sentencing for Trump if he is convicted and said that the recent indictment in Washington carries a sentence of up to 55 years and the indictment for the classified documents carries a maximum sentence of 450 years.
"Finally, the New York charges carry a max penalty of 136 years," he said. "That all said, even with sentencing guidelines greatly reducing the number of years, and even if the judges each order concurrent rather than consecutive sentences, any 77-year-old is facing a life sentence no matter how you shake it."
A spokesperson for Trump directed Newsweek to a statement issued following the indictment that said: "This is nothing more than the latest corrupt chapter in the continued pathetic attempt by the Biden Crime Family and their weaponized Department of Justice to interfere with the 2024 Presidential Election, in which President Trump is the undisputed frontrunner, and leading by substantial margins.
"Three years ago we had strong borders, energy independence, no inflation, and a great economy. Today, we are a nation in decline. President Trump will not be deterred by disgraceful and unprecedented political targeting!"
About the writer
Matthew Impelli is a Newsweek staff writer based in New York. His focus is reporting social issues and crime. In ... Read more