
Experts predicted on Monday that Donald Trump would end up back in his native New York City borough of Queens, notably the prison on Rikers Island, if he continues to test the patience of the judge overseeing his hush money trial.
Judge Juan Merchan issued a warning to the former president that he might go to jail “if necessary” for any more infractions after concluding on Monday that Trump had once again broken a gag order that prevents him from criticizing witnesses or the jury.
Merchan didn’t say which jail specifically. However, Frank Dwyer, the chief spokesman for the jail, responded, “The department will locate appropriate housing,” when asked what would occur if the judge sent Trump to Rikers.
Trump has argued that he is the victim of a two-tiered legal system that gives him worse treatment than other people. However, the critics of the former president contend that it is actually the other way around and that any other criminal defendant who had made the kind of public remarks that Trump has made would already be incarcerated.
Both Trump’s followers and critics are sure to react sharply to the idea of him being imprisoned while on trial. Trump has made repeated attempts to raise money by raising the possibility of going to jail, suggesting that his team has discovered that conjuring up pictures of him as a political prisoner stirs up powerful emotions in his fans.
If Merchan chooses that course of action, Rikers is the most likely destination, according to Mike Lawlor, an associate professor of criminal justice at the University of New Haven in Connecticut.
Marchan is attempting to “end the contempt,” according to Lawlor, a Democrat and former member of the Connecticut House of Representatives, and prevent Trump from influencing jurors and witnesses.
Lawlor stated, “The goal is to keep him away from social media.” “Jailing him would accomplish that.”
For his own safety, Lawlor said, Trump would be placed in protective custody right away and would not be allowed to interact with other inmates.
Lawlor stated, “He would only communicate with members of his Secret Service detail and corrections officers.” “The staff at Rikers has extensive experience caring for prominent inmates, including frail, old people like Trump.”
“He would undoubtedly be the most well-known prisoner ever housed in Rikers, but he wouldn’t be the only well-known prisoner in Rikers,” Lawlor stated of Trump, the 77-year-old.
Allen Weisselberg, the former chief financial officer of Trump, was really one of the detainees. He was sentenced to five months at Rikers last month after admitting guilt to two charges of lying during Trump’s civil fraud trial.
The standard admission procedure that all inmates must undergo would also apply to Trump, bringing with it the humiliation of having guards force “him get on a scale in order to list his actual height and weight on a public website,” according to Lawlor.
According to Lawlor, having Trump imprisoned wouldn’t put an additional strain on his Secret Service team.
“Preserving a former president from harm or kidnapping is the primary responsibility of a Secret Service detail,” stated Lawlor. “They would find it easier in certain ways if Trump were confined to a prison setting.”
Given that the Secret Service is armed, “the larger issue” is where they would be, according to Martin F. Horn, an emeritus professor at John Jay College of Criminal Justice and former commissioner of New York City’s probation and correctional agencies.
Horn predicted that Trump would most likely be brought to the so-called West Facility, where there would be ample space for the former president and his security detail and no other prisoners to worry about.
Still, a Secret Service spokesman told NBC News that the service would never before be tasked with protecting a former president of the United States who is imprisoned.
According to the spokeswoman, the Secret Service does not offer “custodial services” of its own.
It’s unexplored ground, that much is clear, Horn said. “Neither the state prison system nor the federal prison have had to deal with this before.”
According to other experts, Merchan may not be in favor of imprisoning Trump for another reason.
In an interview with José Díaz-Balart on MSNBC, Dave Aronberg, the state attorney for Palm Beach County, Florida, where Trump resides most of the time, suggested that sending him to a real jail would be “what Trump wants to show grievance to his supporters.”
Presumably, Merchan may give Trump a “time out” in a cell located behind the courtroom in New York City where he is presently facing charges.
Michael Zeldin, a former federal prosecutor who participated in the same interview, concurred.
“Maybe an hour in one of those cells may be all that Donald Trump needs to truly comprehend the seriousness of violations of gag orders issued by a very serious judge,” Zeldin added.
Although Horn stated that the court “has wide latitude about the place he could confine” Trump, house arrest is still an option.
Merchan is unlikely, according to Lawlor, to put Trump in a gilded cage, such as his Trump Tower apartment, as he would still have access to gadgets and his attorneys, and he could still disobey the judge’s instructions from there.
“So I do not believe he’d be confined to his Manhattan apartment,” Lawlor stated.