Former FBI Director James Comey said Tuesday that former President Trump is “begging” to be sentenced to prison in his silence case, given his repeated criticism of the court process and judge.
Comey, speaking on CNN’s “The Source with Kaitlan Collins,” said that while he normally believes Trump’s charges would not constitute a prison sentence, he is not sure in the former president’s case.
“I would normally say it is unlikely, in a white collar crime of this type. But this is a defendant, who is begging for a prison sentence, taking a flamethrower, not just to the judge, but to the entire trial and the jury,” Comey said Tuesday.
“A judge will take this very seriously in deciding whether to dissuade this person, and to send a message, more broadly, that they need to spend some time behind bars.”
The former president was found guilty last week on all 34 counts of falsifying business records in New York, becoming the first former US president to become a convicted felon. The charges were rooted in refunds made to Trump’s former fixer and lawyer, Michael Cohen, for a hush money payment to porn actress Stormy Daniels.
Trump is scheduled to be sentenced on July 11, four days before the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee. Trump’s legal team has promised to appeal the case, but the case is currently expected to move forward as scheduled — and the RNC has said it is planning for the possibility of Trump speaking in prison.
Trump’s team has already suggested it does not believe the former president should be jailed, which would be a rare punishment for a first-time offender convicted of Trump’s charges in New York.
Throughout the trial, Trump repeatedly made comments about court officials, including Judge Juan Merchan and Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg (D), arguing to reporters, on social media and in campaign speeches that the charges were politically motivated. .
At one point, before the trial began, Trump attacked Merchan and his daughter, Loren, who was a consultant for a firm that represented several high-profile Democratic politicians.
Merchan, in turn, imposed a gag order that prohibited the former president from commenting publicly about witnesses, prosecutors, court staff or the judge’s family in the case, but did not prevent him from directly attacking Merchan or Bragg. He violated his gag order 10 times and was fined $10,000 as a result.
When asked whether Merchan will take Trump’s behavior or past comments into consideration during sentencing, Comey said, “I will, just as he will have to find that the defendant acted in disregard of the court’s orders, on multiple occasions.”
“All of this will be part of the framework that the judge will analyze, to decide whether it is necessary to send a message that involves arrest,” he added.
Trump, who is the Republican Party’s presumptive presidential nominee, said over the weekend that he would be “OK” with house arrest or prison when asked about the prospect.
“I’m not sure the public would accept that,” Trump said of his possible sentence in a Sunday interview with Fox News. “I think it would be difficult for the public to accept. At a certain point, there is a breaking point.”
Comey reflected Tuesday on the experience of watching the nation’s presumptive Republican presidential nominee become a convicted felon.
“If you put this in a novel, and I’m here because I just wrote a novel, your editor would cross it out and say this is crazy, this would never happen,” he said.
“We’re living in a very strange time. It must be a strange time to be a conspiracy theorist and turn on Fox News, and you hear these people yelling at the attorney general about the use of guns. And the next story is about the department prosecuting the president’s son, for God’s sake,” in reference to the charges faced by Hunter Biden.
“So we live in a strange time. But it’s a time when people have to understand what’s at stake. Donald Trump cannot return to the Oval Office,” he added.
This story originally appeared on thehill.com read the full story
