His fiercest critics including Michael Cohen have shared their dreams of seeing Donald Trump behind bars.
But a far more realistic outcome if he is convicted in New York is he ends up having weekly phone calls to check in with a probation officer or has to visit Bronx school kids to teach them about crime, legal experts say.
The defendant who complains he is a victim of ‘sham’ prosecution in a ‘rat’s nest’ of corruption may even get to design his own community service program.
Convicted criminals and lawyers agree probation is far better alternative to jail time – but it has its inconveniences and shouldn’t be minimized.
‘You definitely don’t want it. Who wants to have to check in? It’s like checking in with your mom and dad on a date,’ said prominent New York attorney Arthur Aidala.
It means once a week, Trump would have to check in, usually by phone, then once a month to answer a series of questions. He would have to tell his court-designated officer if he has been rearrested, if he has been working, and whether he’s been having any other difficulties.
Former President Donald Trump likely won’t get any jail time even if is convicted in the Stormy Daniels trial. A more likely outcome would be probation or community service since he is charged with a non-violent and he has no previous convictions
For a former president who has been admonished inside a courtroom that he complained was ‘freezing’ cold, even those tasks could be onerous.
And failure to meet the terms of probation has landed thousands of New Yorkers in jail.
For Trump, ‘Probation would be an absolute waste of time and energy,’ he said. ‘This guy’s got to to be watched? You’ve got to know where he is? What he’s doing?’ Aidala, a criminal lawyer who represented Harvey Weinstein, told DailyMail.com.
A far better sentencing option to him if Trump were convicted would be for the judge to impose community service, he said, or ask Trump and his team to generate some ideas on how to help the city.
Trump held a campaign rally in the Bronx and has complained throughout the trial about crime in the Big Apple and people fleeing the city.
‘Talk to him about the Trump Organization setting up some sort of food bank or senior citizens loneliness center, something that our society needs that he could use his platform’ to address. ‘I don’t see Donald Trump going to the park and cleaning graffiti,’ he added.
But probation is no cake walk.
‘One of the things that probation looks for is whether or not someone admits their wrongdoing and shows any kind of contrition or responsibility.
‘I can’t imagine what that conversations going to be like if Trump is convicted and meets with a probation officer,’ said Adam Shlahet, a former public defender and prosecutor who teaches at Fordham law school.
Experts don’t expect Trump to get handed some typical community service activities like cleaning up trash or getting rid of grafitti
Judge Juan Merchan has wide latitude to consider fines, community service, probation, or jail if Trump is convicted
Michael Cohen chafed at conditions of supervised release and tried to get them lifted, he testified
‘Probation involves some real responsibilities. You have to meet with your probation officers, check in with your probation officer. There are limits to your travel.
‘I have no idea how the department of probation will handle monitoring potentially the president of the United States. I can’t imagine anybody ever accounting for that,’ he told DailyMail.com.
It is a regimen that Trump, who has been fined $10,000 by Judge Juan Merchan for violating a gag order, might not be able to meet.
‘Probation and parole is a serious burden. There are a lot of people incarcerated because they violated their probation and parole. The revolving door of criminal,’ Shlahet said.
But it is something the city’s probation department says it is capable of handling.
‘We have media cases all the time. It’s New York,’ said Shamira Gambrell, director of Juvenile Operations for the New York City department of probation.
Merchan has spoken at the trial of the importance of treating Trump like an ordinary defendant when it comes to punishments or protecting his rights.
‘The last thing I want to do is to put you in jail,’ Merchan told Trump this month. ‘You are the former president of the United States, and possibly the next president as well. There are many reasons why incarceration is truly a last resort for you.’
But that statement came before the jury was given its chance to weigh in. And Merchan, while appointed to his post, may someday have to face the voters himself.
One ex-con who appreciates the burden of post-release reporting requirements is star witness Michael Cohen.
He told prosecutors of how he tried to shorten his sentence even after it got shifted to at-home detention, with limitations on how much he could travel and obligations to check-in with authorities.
Defense lawyers suggested it was part of a motive to lie about Trump.
New York state and its counties spent $280 million on a probation system between 2002 and 2011, according to the Council of State Governments. Seventeen percent of adults who went to prison committed a crime or a violation while out on probation.
In 2011, 6,100 people on probation got resentenced to jail for violating their terms while being supervised.
