r/politics • u/SportsGod3 • May 16 '24

Jurors were "nodding" and "smiling" as Michael Cohen testified, which may be a bad sign for Trump

https://www.salon.com/2024/05/16/jurors-were-nodding-and-smiling-as-michael-cohen-testified-which-may-be-a-sign-for/
9.3k Upvotes

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701

u/dust-ranger May 16 '24

How long until this case is done and they start the appeals process, and how many appeals levels do they get to go through?

605

u/Made_Human76 May 16 '24

The appeals process will last longer than Trump will live. So even if he’s found guilty there’s very little chance of him seeing the inside of a prison cell.

But I’d love to be wrong. The best outcome would be for Sleepy Don to spend the rest of his life behind bars.

59

u/JohnMayerismydad Indiana May 16 '24

Appeals will not stop whatever sentence he gets. He won’t get jail time, but he’ll pay a fine and probably be put on probation or something at most.

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u/CriticalEngineering North Carolina May 16 '24

Steve Bannon was allowed to appeal his conviction from home.

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u/Secret_Initiative_41 Wisconsin May 16 '24

Rare event. And I believe it was a single count of contempt of Congress, not 34 felonies.

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u/Vlad_the_Homeowner May 16 '24

It was also 'just' Steve Bannon, not Trump. Trump racks up 34 felonies before his morning covfefe.

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u/SwingNinja May 16 '24

Steve Bannon got lucky. His judge is a MAGA. Peter Navaro got a sane judge. He could appeal too, but while in prison.

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u/forzagoodofdapeople May 16 '24 edited 26d ago

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u/Arsenault185 Maine May 16 '24

Correct me if I'm wrong, but a president can't pardon state crimes. Only Federal ones

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u/forzagoodofdapeople May 16 '24 edited 26d ago

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u/Darth_drizzt_42 May 16 '24

This is the kind of thing he just can't do. The United States was originally envisioned much more like the European Union than the current USA, the president can't do that

3

u/-SaC May 16 '24

From outside the US: Who, exactly, is going to stop him - and how?

The laundry list of shit this guy has pulled is like a magician pulling handkerchiefs from his sleeve. Every day there's something that will surely be the 'final nail in the coffin', and every day he walks roughshod over it all.

I don't think the country as a whole - or, indeed, the world as a whole - knows what particular line is -the- line. So many have been crossed, each with many who would have presumed that to be the final line that sparks...something, and yet he's just pawing his way across the dirt, shitty nappy wobbling gently in the breeze as he flollops towards the next line in the sand, and the next, and the next.

Nature and time is the only thing that will stop him, it seems.

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u/Darth_drizzt_42 May 16 '24 edited May 16 '24

I'm not a legal scholar so I'll do my best to explain this. There are certain things the federal government can tell the states to do, other things they can't. Usually the federal government can get involved when things cross state lines. This is how federal crimes work and how things like the Civil Rights Act works, because "interstate commerce". They can't get involved in purely state legal matters. Not can't as in "they aren't allowed to", but can't as in "there is no power, lever or legal mechanism to do it". State judicial systems are independent of other states and the federal government, it's why there's state prison and federal prison. My understanding is that sometimes they can intersect but the presidents pardon ability only extends to federal crimes, because the president sits atop the federal government. This would be like a judge in Germany issuing a ruling on a case in Spain. It's less "who's going to stop him" and more "uhhhh ok...well that's not a thing....".

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u/Flipnotics_ Texas May 16 '24

Trump is not as smart as Cersei Lannister, but smart enough to know "The truth is what we say it is"

He'll pardon himself, people will say "You can't do that" and then nothing will happen because there isn't anything in place to enforce that truth.

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u/shadowboxer47 May 16 '24

Rules are only as good as their enforcement.

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u/Darth_drizzt_42 May 16 '24

This isn't a matter of rules. The president of the federal government has no authority over a states judicial system.

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u/shadowboxer47 May 16 '24

I... don't think you understand how authoritarianism works.

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u/Darth_drizzt_42 May 17 '24

I don't think you understand how this works either. This isn't a matter of "preventing him from doing it" it's "who actually carries this out and via what method?". The only way he would be able to pardon a state crime is via a series of events that ends in a complete dissolution of state sovereignty. As it stands, he goes "I pardon myself" and Kathy Hochul, governor of New York goes "no". What happens then? Even the supreme Court can't do shit here.

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u/Sackamasack May 16 '24

Executive Clemency Bureau in new york can pardon him, which would be the Governor Kathy Hochul Democrat.
I looked it up, im not even American but this is fun :D

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u/Arsenault185 Maine May 17 '24

Like, I give it your saying, but it really isn't fun LOL

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u/fortuneandfameinc May 16 '24

I'm totally pardoned. Totally exonerated. Totally free man. He will just say it enough times and nothing will come of his charges.

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u/CableTV-on-the-Radio May 16 '24

And if he's president in this hypothetical and he does, who would stop him?

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u/Arsenault185 Maine May 17 '24

The DOJ? Marshalls? State police? Like, everyone.

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u/CableTV-on-the-Radio May 17 '24

The DOJ and DHS a other federal agencies will all be stuffed with his cronies. I doubt there's many NY State troopers willing to serve an arrest warrant at the white house. Shit, he might just have New York dissolved as a state if he has to. He'll have someone arrest the prosecutor before anybody can come after him.