Supreme Court Doesn't Have 'Authority' to Keep Trump Out of Jail—Attorney

The Supreme Court doesn't have the "constitutional authority" to keep Donald Trump out of jail pending his expected appeal of his guilty verdict in the former president's Manhattan criminal hush money case, attorney and former federal prosecutor Glenn Kirschner said on Friday.

Trump, the presumptive GOP 2024 presidential nominee, was found guilty last month on 34 counts of falsifying business records related to hush money paid to adult-film actress Stormy Daniels shortly before the 2016 presidential election. Daniels alleges she had a sexual encounter with Trump in 2006, which he denies. The former president has maintained his innocence, claiming the case was politically motivated against him. His legal team intends to appeal the verdict.

Trump's sentencing will be on July 11, and it remains to be seen what type of punishment Judge Juan Merchan, who is overseeing the case, will hand down whether it be probation, house arrest or jail time. If Trump does receive jail time, he could ask the court to be released on his own recognizance or to be allowed a cash bail option to stay out of prison pending appeal.

Meanwhile, Trump has called on the Supreme Court to intervene in the case. In a Truth Social post from June 2, the former president wrote, "The 'Sentencing' for not having done anything wrong will be, conveniently for the Fascists, 4 days before the Republican National Convention. A Radical Left [George] Soros backed D.A., who ran on a platform of 'I will get Trump,' reporting to an 'Acting' Local Judge, appointed by the Democrats, who is HIGHLY CONFLICTED, will make a decision which will determine the future of our Nation? The United States Supreme Court MUST DECIDE!"

In a hypothetical situation where Trump does receive jail time and wants to try to stay out of prison pending appeal, Kirschner, a former assistant U.S. attorney and frequent Trump critic, made it clear that the Supreme Court has no authority to help him.

"I don't think the Supreme Court has a basis to weigh in on that. The nature of the sentence imposed by a state court judge, as long as it's not illegal—in other words, it doesn't exceed the statutory maximum punishment, which this certainly will not—the question of a state court sentence and whether it should begin being served pending appeal or not is not an issue that I think the Supreme Court even has the lawful authority, the constitutional authority to weigh in on," Kirschner told political commentator Brian Tyler Cohen on the YouTube show The Legal Breakdown on Friday.

Newsweek reached out to Kirschner via text message as well as Trump's spokesperson, Steven Cheung, and his lead lawyer in the hush money case, Todd Blanche, via email for comment.

In this hypothetical scenario, Trump would first have to go through the New York appellate courts before the Supreme Court would even consider taking the case. And the same goes if the former president wants the Court to overturn the verdict.

However, Elie Honig, an attorney and CNN senior legal analyst, did put Trump's potential sentencing into perspective.

"This is a Class E felony...if we look at the universe of Class E convictions in New York state...generally the estimates are that somewhere between 70 and 90 percent of Class E New York convictions result in non-prison sentences. So, that would be some combination of probation, fines, perhaps community service. But the converse of that, 10 to 30ish percent do result in prison time. And this will be entirely up to Judge Merchan," he said on CNN after Trump was convicted.