GOP Senators Warn Against Putting Trump Behind Bars

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Republican senators are warning that a New York judge should not sentence former President Donald Trump to prison or do anything that will impair his ability to campaign for president.

Judge Juan Merchan is set to sentence Trump on July 11 on 34 felony counts related to the falsification of business documents.

Some GOP senators are said to be concerned about what Merchan will sentence Trump to because they say he tilted the trial against Trump, The Hill reports.

The sentencing date is just four days ahead of the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee.

Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, maintained it would be a “further abuse of power,” if “Trump is put behind bars or sentenced to home confinement.”

“I’m very troubled by what I see in the way the courts have been weaponized,” said Cornyn, a senior member of the Senate Judiciary Committee. “It used to be there were some institutions in America, namely the FBI, the Department of Justice, and the courts which were regarded as out of bounds for overt partisan politics but, unfortunately, that’s changed and not for the better.”

Sen. Ted Budd, R-N.C., claimed it would be “foolish” for the Merchan to sentence Trump to prison or house arrest.

“But when you see the conviction and the rules that he instructed the jury with, it’s completely unfair, it’s unconstitutional, and I would put nothing past him at this point,” he said of Merchan.

Budd said a strict sentence would only strengthen the resolve of the Americans to back Trump.

Sen. Thom Tillis, R-N.C., had been convinced Trump would never be convicted by the Manhattan jury, but now said he doesn’t know what to think about the prospect of the likely GOP nominee for president ending up in prison before Election Day, The Hill noted.

“With this process, anything is possible,” he said of a prison sentence or home confinement.

Tillis said if the judge restricts Trump’s ability to campaign, he would need to show the sentence is no different from those of other defendants convicted of the same or similar crimes.

“Unless they can pretty quickly find examples of where similar cases have resulted in prison time, it just adds more fuel to the fire that it was [District Attorney Alvin] Bragg’s politically motivated decision” to ask for jail time, he said.

Trump was convicted on 34 counts of falsifying business records, a class E felony, and faces up to four years in prison on each charge. However, most legal experts say the judge could not sentence him to more than 20 years in prison, according to The Hill.

Merchan will likely sentence former President Donald Trump to up to three years in prison, but will suspend the sentence, Harvard Law professor emeritus Alan Dershowitz told Newsmax on Sunday.

Trump’s lawyers should push to move the sentencing date up so they can start appealing the case.

“I think the judge will sentence him to a prison term of two or three years but suspend the sentence as to send a message that he deserves to get a prison term,” Dershowitz said on “Sunday Report.”