If Justice Juan Merchan looks Donald Trump in the eye on Sentencing Day, July 11, and fails to give him prison time, it’ll feel like his court is issuing a belated apology for wasting everybody’s time.
What other punishment are we anticipating? A fine? What would a fine mean to Trump, who’s worth at least tens of millions of dollars? Nothing. He’d still have millions in his greedy little hands. And whatever Merchan might fine him, Trump’s supporters would open their wallets and rush to reimburse the grifter ex-president.
The judge could sentence Trump to home detention, but what’s so rough about that? He’ll hang out at Mara Lago, which is not exactly a gulag, and he’ll step outside and hit a golf ball around.
Trump deserves prison, nothing less.
And don’t tell me that, technically speaking, this was just a case of falsifying business records, no different at its heart from routine white-collar business in which fines are imposed and everybody gets on with their lives.
This guy, Trump, tried to fix a presidential election, about which there is no longer any denial. A jury of ordinary American citizens, after hearing all the evidence, told us so.
After they came back last week with guilty verdicts on 34 separate counts, we can also stop that fantasy about Trump simply trying to protect his wife, Melania, from finding out he was dallying with a porn star and a Playboy pinup while she was home with their new-born son.
After the news had already broken about the Hollywood Access tapes? Yeah, poor Melania never had a previous suspicion that her husband was doing to these women what he was preparing to do to the whole country.
Are we now so blinded by partisan politics that we’re willing to deny the obvious – that Trump and his co-conspirators went into full panic mode after the Access Hollywood tapes, and figured any more sex news would utterly doom his 2016 campaign as the country headed down the home stretch to Election Day.
Six-figure payoffs to rig a presidential election – if that’s not worth prison time, then what is?
Anything less will feel like the prosecution doesn’t believe in the power of its own case, and in its belated shame passed that message along to the judge in its pre-sentence report, and the judge went along with it.
And every Trump supporter who has stood by Trump through one scandal after another will look at this and say, “See? Even his attackers didn’t think it was such a big deal.”
Picture it now: On Sentencing Day, Judge Merchan tells Trump, “Do you have anything to say before sentencing?”
Of course, Trump has already said plenty, gag order or no gag order. Did you catch any of that speech last week, the morning after the guilty verdict?
Trump was still claiming innocence. He was still slandering the judge, still calling the case “rigged,” still free-associating the most outlandish claims. He sounded like a man who’s come undone.
He certainly didn’t sound like a man feeling remorse.
He sounded like a man continuing to lie to hide his crimes, even as he continues tearing apart the entire country.
If that’s not worth prison, then what is?
A former Baltimore Sun columnist and WJZ-TV commentator, Michael Olesker is the author of seven books, including “Tonight at 6: A Daily Show Masquerading as Local TV News” (Apprentice House). His most recent book, “Boogie: Life on a Merry-Go-Round,” was published by Apprentice House.
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