Trump's 'factually false and perniciously racist' attacks could land him in jail: expert

Donald Trump's attacks on the court and prosecutors in his hush money case won't earn him any charity when he's sentenced next month, although a legal expert believes he'll try to spin any punishment he receives as a political win.

The presumptive Republican presidential nominee was convicted four weeks ago on 34 counts of falsifying business records to conceal other crimes, and while Class E felonies typically result in probation, legal analyst Lisa Rubin told MSNBC's "Morning Joe" that Trump's remorseless attacks on the entire process will likely result in a stiffer punishment.

"I think he thinks it might be politically helpful," Rubin said. "Certainly, the reporting has been that he wants to avoid jail at all costs, that he is very much scared of anything approaching incarceration, but from a political perspective, he believes that's political gold for him. If you look at the messaging both during the trial and thereafter he's definitely trying to rile up his base with the possibility of some form of term of incarceration, and in terms of how he's talking, he's continuing to push a narrative that, as I've written and others have, is extraordinarily dangerous, tying the current president to the prosecution in Manhattan by somehow alleging that the Biden administration and, specifically, the Department of Justice was pulling Manhattan [district attorney] Alvin Bragg's strings through Mathew Colangelo, who was part of the team but not its head."

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"For a variety of reasons, that narrative makes no sense, it is factually false, and it actually is dangerously and perniciously racist because it assumes D.A. Alvin Bragg, who is Black, could not have executed this prosecution on his own without the supervision of a bunch of white elders," Rubin added.

Trump is the first former president to ever stand trial on criminal charges, and his status presents a number of obstacles to serving a sentence in jail, although Rubin suspects he'll get more than probation.

"I think there's a possibility that Trump gets some form of incarceration," Rubin said. "Now that incarceration, because of the logistical issues, could come in the form of a house arrest and not in a traditional incarceration setting, but given the lack of remorse there's a number of violations of the gag order that have not been brought to judge [Juan] Merchan's attention but happened on journalists' watch during the trial. The district attorney's office may have made the decision it wasn't worth it at that stage to bring it to Merchan's attention. They wanted to see the trial through, they wanted it completed and wanted a verdict, but that doesn't mean they are not going to go to him during sentencing and say, 'Look at all these other things that he did. Look at all the other things that he said, he doesn't take your word seriously. Nothing short of incarceration will be enough to get this guy to stop.'"

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