Legal AF by MeidasTouch - Trump WORST NIGHTMARE is About to SET IN as a Felon

Episode Date: June 1, 2024

Trump now a felon who is release is conditioned by judge Merchan must report for an in person mental health and background interview with the NY probation department as they make their recommendations to the judge as to the proper length of sentence. Michael Popok breaks it down including the moment when the investigator has to make an evaluation about Trump’s mental stability. For 15% off your order head to https://LaundrySauce.com/LEGALAF and use code LEGALAF Visit https://meidastouch.com for more! Join us on Patreon: https://patreon.com/legalaf Remember to subscribe to ALL the MeidasTouch Network Podcasts: MeidasTouch: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/meidastouch-podcast Legal AF: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/legal-af The PoliticsGirl Podcast: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/the-politicsgirl-podcast The Influence Continuum: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/the-influence-continuum-with-dr-steven-hassan Mea Culpa with Michael Cohen: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/mea-culpa-with-michael-cohen The Weekend Show: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/the-weekend-show Burn the Boats: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/burn-the-boats Majority 54: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/majority-54 Political Beatdown: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/political-beatdown Lights On with Jessica Denson: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/lights-on-with-jessica-denson On Democracy with FP Wellman: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/on-democracy-with-fpwellman Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Bet Mode activated. The ScoreBet app here with trusted stats and real-time sports news. Yeah, hey, who should I take in the Boston game? Well, statistically speaking. Nah, no more statistically speaking. I want hot takes. I want knee-jerk reactions. That's not really what I do.

Is that because you don't have any knees or? Ugh. The ScoreBet, trusted sports content, seamless sports betting. Download today. 19 Plus, Ontario only. If you have questions or concerns about your gambling or the gambling of someone close to you, please go to ConnixOntario.ca.

To support sustainable food production, BHP is building one of the world's most sustainable potash mines in Canada. Essential resources responsibly produced. It's happening now at BHP, a future resources company. That's the sound of unaged whiskey, transforming into Jack Daniel's Tennessee Whiskey in Lynchburg, Tennessee. Around 1860, nearest Green taught Jack Daniel how to filter whiskey through charcoal for a smoother taste, one drop at a time. This is one of many sounds in Tennessee

with a story to tell. To hear them in person, plan your trip at tnvacation.com. Tennessee sounds perfect. This is Michael Popak, Legal AF, day one, plus one, Donald Trump the felon. And what does he have to do as a felon? He has to report to a New York City department that's responsible for creating sentencing memorandum to

provide to the judge who's going to be sentencing Donald Trump on July the 11th. And in the interview, mandatory interview for all felons including one named Donald J. Trump, he has to give it himself, not through his lawyers. Trump is gonna have to be interviewed by this person, this civil servant, this bureaucrat who's responsible for creating these sentencing reports. He's gonna have to get a full detailed background of Donald Trump. He's not gonna be able to just phone it in and give his wiki. And here's my wiki page. I was 45. I'm the former 45. That's not gonna do it. And there's

gonna have to be a detailed evaluation of his mental health. This is my favorite part of the interview. This is the part where, and these are all New Yorkers, so I know they know who the guy is. Could you imagine though the questions that normally they ask, let's talk about your social media. Do you have social media?

Do you use social media ever to attack a neighbor or someone that you don't know or use some sort of violent rhetoric in. Could you give me access to your, I need to see all of your social media. I mean, how much time do you have? I mean, but this is part of the evaluation. Just as everything that Donald Trump has done since he was convicted, even before, in which he's attacked the judge, the jury, just doing their civic duty in New York and convicting him and evaluating the evidence, the criminal, just doing their civic duty in New York and convicting him and evaluating the evidence. The criminal justice system and everybody else. This all feeds into the data points, the analysis that Judge Murchon is going to use in sentencing Donald Trump on the

11th of July, just before the Republican National Committee nominates him as their candidate. We're gonna get that sentencing done and it doesn't matter what happens on appeal. I know Donald Trump loves running around talking about this great appeal he's gonna take to the very court, the First Department Appellate Division in New York, of which I'm a member, having been sworn in there 30-something years ago. He keeps bashing them. Alina Jaffa goes on television, all of his serigots go on television, bashing that court.

Well, that court is the court he's now gonna have to go to for some sort of reprieve, but he's not gonna get it. This sentencing is happening on the 11th of July, even if he files some sort of emergency application because they're gonna treat him like any other criminal. Now, a felon. Now let's talk about the post-felon world Donald Trump now finds himself in. He's gonna have to sit across the table, not a Zoom and not with his

lawyers, to give this interview. In this interview they're gonna ask for background information and try to evaluate his mental health. Note to the New York City Department, Midas Touch would love to send you a compilation reel of the best of Donald Trump that you could use to help evaluate his mental health. But let's put that aside for a moment. This all goes into a pre-sentencing report, just similar in the federal system to the report that's prepared by pretrial services that aids the judges in this context with setting the appropriate sentence. And what goes into the appropriate sentence is, you know, you start with the max.

Yes, it's four years for each of the 34 counts, but it's a maximum of 20 years. So you start at the far extreme. He's not getting 20 years. I know we'd all have opinions about whether he should or he shouldn't, but Donald Trump's not getting 20 years. And then the judge is gonna have,

and I'm sure the report is going to address, other similarly situated people who committed business record fraud in furtherance of a second crime and got a Class E felony, which is the lowest level of felonies in New York. And what is the range of sentences for those types of people?

Is it one year, two years, three years? Is it six months and probation? Is it home confinement? What is it? Yes, the judge has been on the bench for over 15 years and has sentenced people for these particular crimes. But he's going to want to know from a precedent standpoint what others similarly situated have done. Now, I'm setting aside for a moment the criminal contempt that the judge has already found that Donald Trump has violated,

and he's still subject as a condition of his release to these very issues, right? The gag order, as far as I'm concerned, is still in place because he's still a member, a participant, unwilling participant, involuntary participant in the criminal justice system in New York. And he's still on release. That's been allowed by the judge.

Prosecution didn't ask for, ask for the judge to have him post the bond. He's been released, but he's released at the mercy and at the discretion of the trial judge, judge Rishon, same trial judge that Donald Trump has been bashing along with his family and jurors and prosecutors and the like right up until the moment of This hot take when you watch it my old laundry Detergent used to drive me crazy. It comes in those big plastic jugs. They make a mess they drip everywhere It's hard to pour and so I just really dislike it very much And of course, I do a lot of laundry

I have a big family and it's so frustrating when you are doing laundry and you have to use that big plastic jug. And you know, frankly, I don't love the smell and it smelled very synthetic to me. So this podcast, I'm loving the sponsor, it's called Laundry Sauce. Laundry Sauce has created the world's best smelling laundry detergent in simple to use high performance pods. Laundry Sauce has created the world's best smelling laundry detergent and simple to use high performance pods.

Laundry Sauce has transformed the mundane task of doing laundry into a luxurious and exciting experience. So you don't have to dread laundry anymore. And what is the secret behind Laundry Sauce? They partnered with one of the top fragrance houses in the world, the same team behind many of your favorite designer scents from Australian Sandalwood to Egyptian Rose to cyber pine laundry sauce will make it so that laundry day will never smell the same again plus they stripped away all the unnecessary ingredients and artificial dyes that now is more

science-backed with stain fighters and enzymes that are much better to ensure your favorite clothes come out looking brand new and not smelling synthetic. And I love it so much. My whole house smells like it now, and it's a great thing. So they have reviews on their site. You should check them out. They're funny reviews.

They're very authentic. It was started, Laundry Sauce was started in 2021 by a team who were bored by the mundane scents in their detergent aisle. So they decided to make a product that was conscious, relevant and innovative. It's not just the pods, laundry sauce makes scent boosters, dryer sheets, dryer balls, fabric softeners

and even candles too. So if you aren't happy, send back laundry sauce for a full refund, no questions asked. Elevate your laundry with Laundry Sauce. Now is the time to experience Laundry Sauce. Head to laundriesauce.com slash legal AF and use promo code legalaf at checkout for 15% off. That's the best offer you'll find,

but you must use code legalaf for 15% off your order. That's laundriesauce.com slash legalaf, promo code legalaf for 15% off your order. That's laundriesauce.com slash legal AF, promo code legal AF for 15% off. So the judge wants to get to the bottom of what is the appropriate range. Let me give you some numbers just to give you some sort of broad context. Michael Cohen on a federal set of charges, not state,

was sentenced to three years for federal election crimes and a couple of other crimes which came out of the same Stormy Daniels bribe issue. Not business record fraud, but some other issues related to that. And he got three years. That was under federal set of laws and federal guidelines and all of that. Switch over to state issues. People in and around Donald Trump, like Allen Weisselberg, the disgraced twice now convicted felon, former chief financial officer. He got about five months of peace,

one for a couple of counts of perjury and one for a number of counts of tax fraud. So you have the three years, you've got the five months, you've got the outer extreme of 20 years maximum, which is never gonna happen for any first time offender and whether named Donald Trump or not. And you've got the recommendations under the pre-sentencing report,

which is coming out of this neutral independent entity that's being charged with preparing the report. Now, what are the other inputs that the judge will use for sentencing on the 11th of July? Prosecution recommendations. Prosecution will do its own research. Of course, it's got access to all the convictions and all the sentences for everybody coming out

of the Manhattan DA's office, their own office. And they will say, this is the appropriate range. Unlike the federal system, where there is a set of federal guidelines to guide the judge, this is done a little bit more bespoke by the judge. There are references to other cases, but there's not like a rule book that tells you, okay, this many violations and this many things, and for a first-time offender who didn't cooperate, blah, blah, blah, this is the number. So he basically comes up with it or she comes up with it on their own.

The prosecution will make their recommendation. If I had a guess, it's going to be somewhere in the, I don't know, less than four years and more than a year, something like a one in four year range, and they may ask for part of it to be in home confinement. Maybe they'll ask for part of the sentence to start after the election. That's okay too. You could have that would that would resolve the problem of what to do about candidate Trump. I don't think he's gonna be put in and I'm just being fair and honest here and not blowing smoke or sunshine. I don't think this judge is gonna subject him to home confinement or put him in prison

between now and November 5th. After November 5th, you know, I think that's a different story. But I think before November 5th, I doubt he's gonna go in. And if he goes in, you know, the judge also has the right, it's his discretion, subject to appellate review, to make it a probation. It's a first time offender, could it be probation?

Sure, I mean, based on his acting out in violations of criminal contempt, do I think that's what's gonna happen? Probably not, but that's the range, that one in four range versus what they're gonna argue for, which is nothing, probation at best, but that doesn't expunge the record. Donald Trump is a felon,

and for states that don't allow felons to vote, he's not gonna be able to vote for himself on a conviction prior to the November election. Let's just leave it at that. So you have all these inputs, and then the judge makes the ultimate decision. And then if you don't like it, you take it up on appeal to the Appellate Division,

First Department in New York. If you don't like that, you try to get an appeal to the Appellate Division First Department in New York. If you don't like that, you try to get an appeal to the Court of Appeals, the highest court in New York. But I think the mental health evaluation that Donald Trump now has to subject himself to is my favorite part. And the person on the other side who has to evaluate Donald Trump's fitness, if you will.

Now between now and the time of sentencing in July, we got a lot of time, right? We got six weeks. All the things that Donald Trump is doing to act out could not only violate the conditions of his release, but also could go into the mix and into the big pot of stew that goes into what his sentence is ultimately going to be. And so with all of these inputs on July 11th, the Judge Rashaan is going to make the ruling about what the sentence is going to be. And again, he could push it off until after the election

and avoid this issue of jailing a person who's also running for president. Or he could have just ignored that issue altogether and say, no, I'm gonna either give you probation or I'm gonna give you some combination of home confinement and take you off the campaign trail after the nomination. Or you need to go into Rikers. I just wanna manage expectations

about what the sentence is gonna be and talk about the process. Do it right here on this Legal AF update and hot take. So until my next hot take, until my next Legal AF, this is Michael Popak reporting. Heary, heary, Legal AF Law Breakdown is now in session. Go beyond the headlines and get a deep dive into the important legal concepts you need to know

and we discuss every day on Legal AF. Exclusive content you won't find anywhere else, all for the price of a couple of cups of coffee. Join us at patreon.com slash Legal AF. That's patreon.com slash Legal AF.