And I’m calling bullshit on the people that are saying a gag order will interfere with his campaign.
They aren’t going to make him stop talking completely. He can still have rallies and blather about Making America Great Again and rail against liberal socialist radical leftists and badmouth the FBI and DOJ. He just won’t be able to talk about that one thing.
Besides, if Trump really wants it go away, I’m pretty sure his lawyers could negotiate the charges down to misdemeanors and let him plead guilty and pay a fine and maybe receive a suspended sentence. That probably what a normal defendant would do and they may have even charged it as they did to give themselves that room for negotiation.
Which is actually what I expect him to do at some point. Trump’s schtick doesn’t play well in an actual courtroom, as we saw after the 2020 election. Besides Melania can’t be happy with all the new attention being given to his old affairs. So I predict he’ll plead it down and spin it as a victory, as soon as all the oxygen he’s been getting lately gets cut off.
Normal defendants do plea bargain. It’s a recipe for injustice in many cases. But Trump will likely be offered a no-jail deal, and his semi-normal lawyers will urge him to take it.
I don’t think he will take it. Too much risk of de-energizing his political supporters. Also, he’d figure it’s more realistic to appeal a jury verdict than jail for a probation violation. But you could be correct.
There’s lots of talk on these boards about whether Trump will take a plea.
But the government doesn’t have to make any offers.
And, in this case, I hope they don’t. It would have been insane to file the case against this man unless you thought it was airtight. Once you get to that point, why would you ever accept less than a guilty plea on all counts?