Jonathan Turley discusses Trump's conviction with Jeanine Pirro, calls hush money trial 'abuse' of justice system
NEW YORK CITY, NEW YORK: Fox News contributor Jonathan Turley and 'The Five' host Judge Jeanine Pirro discussed the guilty verdict against former president Donald Trump in the criminal hush money trial on the Friday, May 31 episode of 'America Reports'.
Trump was unanimously found guilty by a 12-member jury panel on 34 felony counts of falsifying business records. The verdict is made historic by the fact that it is the first time a former president of the United States has been convicted of a crime.
The penalties faced by Trump on each count include a fine and up to four years in prison. The presumptive GOP nominee is scheduled to be sentenced on July 11, four days ahead of the Republican National Convention.
Jeanine Pirro's take on legal recourses for Trump moving forward
Jeanine Pirro mentioned that Donald Trump's defense team has the opportunity to make a motion for post-conviction in front of Judge Juan Merchan stating that the verdict goes against the evidence, but felt it would not be enough to offer them any relief.
"Once the sentencing occurs, they can appeal to the Appellate Court to try to stay that sentencing until the appeal has been ended or perfected," she said. "The appellate division handles it first, and it would probably take from six months to a year (before) moving to the Court of Appeals."
"Although Mark Levin is talking about possibly taking it to the Supreme Court on a Common Writ ... But the normal process would be (Trump) would be sentenced on the 11. There is a wide panel of sentencing options that Judge Merchan has ... From four years (in prison) max on class E felony counts to simply suspending a sentence or saying there will be no punishment in terms of jail time but simple probation or maybe even a conditional discharge," Pirro added.
Jonathan Turley's take on Donald Trump's conviction
Turley claimed that the conviction of Donald Trump was simply "popular justice" and not something that is expected of a well-functioning legal system.
"Well, there's an irony, of course, because you just had a special counsel (Robert Hur) who said, I'm not indicting the president (Joe Biden) because he's an elderly man with a failing memory… So there is that irony," he said.
"Look, we agree on this, the justice system being the touchstone of all Americans. But this was an abuse," continued Turley.
"And I think that people who are fair-minded would say this was a basically popular justice of Manhattan, but it wasn't the justice we look forward to in our legal system."
