The chances of the now convicted felon Donald Trump seeing the inside of a prison cell may be close to nil. But former FBI Director James Comey thinks his former boss is provoking the judge to inflict a stiff sentence.
"It seems unlikely, but I've never seen a defendant begging for a jail sentence more than one who's taken a flame thrower to the judge and the jury," said Comey who appeared on CNN's "The Situation Room" to plug his new crime novel "Westport." "It still seems unlikely to me, but Donald Trump is asking for it."
Since he was found guilty of all 34 counts of falsifying business records in the effort to silence an alleged tryst with porn star Stormy Daniels nearly a decade ago to influence the results of the 2016 election, Trump has erupted against the key players who had a hand in finding him guilty.
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On Friday, the 45th president spoke from the atrium of the Trump Tower in Midtown Manhattan — booked next to the gold hued escalator he famously strode down to announce his candidacy for president in 2015.
Trump relied on time-tested refrains that the trial was "rigged," the judge compromised, prosecutors were biased, and the venue unfair. (At the start of trial, Trump's defense tried and failed to move the trial to Staten Island.)
The borough was the only one of five in New York that he won in 2016 and 2020 elections.
“We had a conflicted judge, highly conflicted, there has never been a more conflicted judge,” he said. “You know what the conflict is. Nobody wants to write about it and I'm not allowed to talk about it. If I do, he said I could be put in jail. We will play that game a bit longer.”
Trump tipped off that he plans to appeal the verdict.
"The people of our country know it's a hoax, they know it's a hoax, they get it," Trump said. "You know, they're really smart. And it's really something, so we're going to be appealing this scam."
But Comey believes that this kind of lack of remorse won't help Trump's cause when he goes before Manhattan Supreme Court Justice Juan Merchan scheduled for July 11 — four days ahead of the RNC Convention in Milwaukee.
"It's very important to a sentencing judge and any defense lawyer would tell you that you tell your clients to be on their best behavior and tell the court, 'I've learned whatever lessons there are to learn, so please let me go about the rest of my life.'"