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- A jury found Donald Trump guilty of all 34 felony counts in the New York hush-money trial.
- The judge scheduled Trump’s sentencing hearing for July 11.
- But it could take months, maybe over a year, until Trump faces any consequences, legal expert says.
A Manhattan jury found Donald Trump guilty of all 34 felony counts in the hush-money criminal trial concerning a clandestine payment made to adult film actress Stormy Daniels.
What comes next? Delays, delays, delays.
The judge, New York Supreme Court Justice Juan Merchan, set Trump’s sentencing hearing for July 11 at 11 a.m. ET.
In that hearing, Trump could face up to a four-year prison sentence for each count.
But don’t expect Trump to face any of those consequences before the election.
It will likely be months, maybe even more than a year, before the former president needs to address them, Alex Reinert, a criminal and constitutional law expert from Cardozo School of Law, told Business Insider.
“I think we can expect months, a year, more than a year of potential delays,” Reinert said. “It’s hard to predict at the outset, but it’s going to take some time.”
The main reason for delays is because Trump’s defense team can be expected to appeal the jury’s decision. And there’s a number of reasons they can seek to fight the verdict, Reinert said.
The attorneys can raise issues with the jury instructions that were given by Justice Merchan, evidentiary issues, or even challenge whether the Manhattan District Attorney’s office attempted to use New York state law to prosecute a federal campaign violation, Reinert said.
“I don’t know if any of these arguments will ultimately have merit, but I think these are all potential,” he said.
With an appeal, which can come after Trump’s sentencing, Reinert said it’s almost certain that any sentence will be stayed pending the appeal, meaning Trump won’t have to face the consequences until the appeal is resolved.
Reinert added that there are plenty of people who are sitting in prison today as they wait on the status of their appeal but that’s highly unlikely to happen given the nature of the crime and who the defendant is: a former and running president.
“I’d be shocked if that happens here,” Reinert said. “Shocked because of who the defendant is, and I think there’s a tendency to treat crimes like this differently than crimes of violence.”