According to several legal experts, should Donald Trump be convicted on any of the 34 felony counts listed in his hush money trial indictment, he could find that his sentence will be harsher than normal due to his continuing to butt heads with Judge Juan Merchan.
In particular, the former president's ongoing testing of the boundaries of the judge's gag order could come back to haunt him if the Manhattan jury returns a guilty verdict.
In interviews with Politico's Ben Feuerherd, several former prosecutors speculated that the former president has put himself in a position where Merchan will come down harder on him due to his conduct during the hush money trial.
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With Politico reporting, "If he’s convicted, Trump’s defiance of the judge’s order — including two recent comments posing a new test of its boundaries — could make things worse for the former president at sentencing," former Manhattan prosecutor Mark Bederow offered, "Those are obviously aggravating factors, generically speaking, for someone to get a stiffer sentence."
According to Anna Cominsky of the New York Law School, "The gag order, having to deal with the gag order, is a huge distraction for both sides,” but that doesn't mean prosecutors will ignore noting the violations if it comes to actual sentencing.
Former U.S. Attieny Barbara McQuade pointed out that Trump's gag order defiance could be a wild card when it comes to sentence parameters.
“Trump’s contempt for the judge’s gag order is so unprecedented that it’s very difficult to say how a judge would usually handle such a situation,” she suggested.
She then added, "Remorse and the need to promote respect for the law are typically factors that a judge takes into consideration when imposing sentences. Trump’s repeated violations of the gag order certainly demonstrate the lack of remorse and respect for the law.”
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