The U.S. Secret Service is in the business of protecting the president, whether he’s inside the Oval Office or visiting a foreign war zone.
But protecting a former president in prison? The prospect is unprecedented. That would be the challenge if Donald J. Trump — whom the agency is required by law to protect around the clock — is convicted at his criminal trial in Manhattan and sentenced to serve time.
Even before the trial’s opening statements, the Secret Service was in some measure planning for the extraordinary possibility of a former president behind bars. Prosecutors had asked the judge in the case to remind Mr. Trump that attacks on witnesses and jurors could land him in jail even before a verdict is rendered.
I would hope that being found guilty of treason would revoke any duty to protect them by the secret service…
Unfortunately, of all the charges he’s facing, treason is not one of them.
Yet?
Yet. The electors scheme that dumps directly participated in to conspire with election officials to forge and mail in false elector documents is still undergoing investigation and, with new updates every month from Republicans giving information to the authorities.
This is the one that I thought would be the most likely of causing him serious legal trouble, but this happened across seven states with an unknown number but around a dozen election officials that agreed to forge documents at Trump’s and his team’s request and then send in the documents to trick the national archives and pence into falsely certifying Trump as the president-elect in the 2020 election.
It’s batshit insane, and he was directly involved, and multiple people can corroborate that. The doj the FBI, some of those Republican collaborators are already working with them, I check in every couple weeks just to see what the latest news is.
The investigations and prosecutions by individual states and government agencies are ongoing, so prosecution of trump is still very much on the table, but only when all of the circumstances and information available has been organized and arrayed, and all of the smaller fish have been targeted and dealt with first.
As of March 2024, the Arizona AG is said that they’re nearing the end of their investigation.
But that’s one state of seven. And there’s also the FBI and the doj investigating this, so there’s a lot going on.
If he was going to face treason charges, they would have brought it as part of the January 6 trial.
Those charges are:
https://www.npr.org/2023/08/01/1191493880/trump-january-6-charges-indictment-counts
one count of conspiracy to defraud the United States applies to Trump’s repeated and widespread efforts to spread false claims about the November 2020 election while knowing they were not true and for allegedly attempting to illegally discount legitimate votes all with the goal of overturning the 2020 election, prosecutors claim in the indictment.
one count of conspiracy to obstruct an official proceeding was brought due to the alleged organized planning by Trump and his allies to disrupt the electoral vote’s certification in January 2021.
one count of obstruction of and attempt to obstruct an official proceeding is tied to Trump and his co-conspirators’ alleged efforts after the November 2020 election until Jan. 7, 2021, to block the official certification proceeding in Congress.
one count of conspiracy against rights refers to Trump and his co-conspirators alleged attempts to “oppress, threaten and intimidate” people in their right to vote in an election.
I’m surprised they didn’t consider selling classified submarine plans to be treason, as part of the classified documents case.
At one point in his interviews, Butler says he told investigators that Australian billionaire Anthony Pratt repeated classified submarine secrets following a conversation with Trump in spring 2021.
https://www.cnn.com/2024/03/11/politics/trump-employee-5-classified-documents-mar-a-lago/index.html
And Arizona has begun active prosecutions.
Woop wooop.
Not against Trump himself, unfortunately, but as I mentioned everything’s still moving forward so just got to wait and see how everything is prosecuted.
Is it only about protecting him or also avoiding him discussing unwanted topics with other inmates in that case? He’s still the recipient of privileged information…
It’s exactly this. It’s protection for him is a side effect of protecting the country. While these two things will generally overlap, if they ever diverge…
Yeah you guys still execute traitors right ? That would be quite the signal xD
Apparently only if they are brown or Jewish.
With adequate lighting he certainly looks orange enough verging on brownish ;-)
Nope, white people can keep him.
Would you believe trump still has any important secrets he hasn’t blabbed yet?
Fair point…
From what I remember the secret service can opt to stop protecting him.
Nope.
Under current United States federal law, all former presidents are entitled to lifetime protection from the Secret Service. Barring an act of Congress or a presidential executive order, the Secret Service is bound by law to protect former presidents for life. There aren’t any exceptions listed in the statute governing the protection of former presidents. Source
Barring an act of Congress or a presidential executive order
Could definitely imagine Congress and/or Biden doing that to make sure that Secret Service agents aren’t sent to prison for crimes they didn’t commit…
They wouldn’t be condemned to prison, they would work in a prison. The logistics would have to be worked out but I guess they would work alongside the prison guards and have agents constantly around prisoner Orange. It would suck for them but they would be normal rotations/breaks and such.
They can’t opt out, but HE can.
We just need to convince him that they’re spying for the libs or some shit.
Trump will not go to a normal prison / gen pop, etc. Toss that thought from your mind.
Trump will die in a shitty military barracks on a shitty military base where he has no internet connection, access to him can be easily controlled & he can’t blab state secrets.
There is already a precedent here with Nixon’s lawyer.
Other than your first sentence, this is pure fantasy. He’ll never go far enough to trigger actual accountability from those that matter…
I remember when that line was “they’ll never indict an ex-President”.
Trump is going to die in Federal custody if he doesn’t win re-election.
There is not a single example of the DoJ spending this amount of money & manpower to say “oh well”.
I hope you’re right. Not because I care that much about Trump, but because laws matter. You can’t expect people to follow them when one person can brazenly flout them with zero consequences…
Is that Mitchell you’re referencing?
Yes.
I feel like losing the protection of the secret service should be part of being tried and convicted of a crime if you are the president.
The secret service will be there to prevent other inmates from beating national secrets out of him.
Trump? Keep secrets?
Well in theory that’s why they’d be there…
Fair point, but the rules are not specifically for Trump, they’re for any US ex president.
Alright, they’re there to prevent him just blurting them out with no prompting whatsoever.
This is why he’ll never be in general population.
Trump would likely be segregated from other prisoners (aka solitary confinement) for his own safety & the safety of the guards.
Is anything that man had access to even a “secret” anymore?
Shit all they have to do is tell him the Democrats said XYZ and he’d tell them why they’re wrong.
I honestly doubt he remembers anything at this point.
So one thing I don’t fully understand is this: the secret service is required by law to protect the former president, but…is there anything that actually requires the state of New York to accommodate the secret service in doing so?
In theory, couldn’t the state of New York just actually throw Trump in prison, no special privileges, and also no special accommodations for the secret service?
I would LOVE to see that scenario. Trump goes to prison as he deserves and gets his special accommodations all revoked either by the court or the prison or whatever.
Being immune to repercussions of your crimes because you are in a certain position is a very bad thing.
I’m pretty sure the Supremacy Clause would make it a very bad time for whoever is unconstitutionally trying to block federal agents from protecting the criminal-in-chief.
Perhaps, but I don’t think they’d push the issue.
The fact that this is where American is at is disgraceful.
This traitor needs the maximum penalty and his supporters need to undergo some sort of education on Russian propoganda.
“I don’t think he knows about second education on Russian propaganda, Pippin.”
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Even the prosecutor was only asking for $1k for each violation of the gag order. That’s just limp wristed finger wagging. I don’t really see the point in this charade. Anybody else would be in prison for pulling that shit.
That’s the law, they literally can’t demand more; It’s a regressive fine, just like everything else in society. If they could call for a heftier financial penalty, they would.
I’m sure that there are other laws that could apply, like witness intimidation. Contempt can also carry jail time for each instance. The judge has discretion to hold him in jail during the trial as well.
Indeed, he could be locked up for up to 30 days, but I think Merchan wants to avoid feed this asshole’s martyr complex.
Personally I’d rather trump end up like Steve Biko than Nelson Mandela, but perhaps Merchan is far more level-headed than I am.
For context, Frank DiPascali plead guilty to 10 federal charges in 2009 related to his role in Bernie Madoff’s investment scams. He died of lung cancer in 2015 and had yet to be sentenced. That’s how long it takes when there’s a guilty plea, making things relatively easy.
Trump walking around a free man for 8 years is not unusually long. One of the major federal cases, taking classified materials home with him and not giving it back, had no crime occurring until he was out of office.
What I’m saying is that if the timeline is your argument for the government letting him get away with things, then you should find a different argument. This level of waiting is normal.
Why is it normal? And how do we fix it?
There’s lots of reasons. One is that prosecutors have one shot at it–they don’t get to appeal a not-guilty verdict in most circumstances–so they need to build their case very, very carefully. This is arguably a good thing, so maybe we shouldn’t fix it.
One thing we very much should fix, though, is that the size of the federal bench hasn’t been increased in a while, and judges have an overwhelming workload. Doubling or even quadrupling the number of judges would be in order. This will get labeled as “stuffing the bench” by whichever party isn’t currently in power, but it’s a good idea.
The justice system is just slow, though. Consider that depending on the outcome, it can take away everything you own, throw you in jail for years, or in some jurisdictions, end your life. There are reasons for those outcomes (well, except for the death penalty), and that means the process should be very deliberate. This isn’t just about Trump.
I was reading somewhere that congress has introduced legislation barring the secret service from protecting the president once the president is convicted. But good luck getting that passed.
Ex presidents get protection as much because they are a security risk as for their own safety.
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This one is something that would be opposed only because of the current situation. Once the tables turned, the opposing party would be all over it.
If an ex-president is convicted, I don’t care which side of the political spectrum he or she was.
That’s cuz you’re not a conservative. Don’t expect them to see it the same way.
I never expected them to see it the smart way.
Saves taxpayer dollars and opens a lucrative subcontractor job for the Aryan Brotherhood. His base will love it, especially later in the summer
Kind of like Egyptian kings getting buried with their servants.
Never understood keeping secret service protection after they are no longer in power? As anyone tried to kill a former president?
Every president in or out of office has information of national security that is in our best interests to protect. Correct me if I’m wrong but wasn’t the password to launch nukes 1234 for like 60 years. They could’ve kidnapped like 5 ex-presidents and been able to launch nukes from the info obtained even if common logic says it should be obsolete.
IIRC, the code was 00000000
Believe me, someone would try to kill trump.
Wouldn’t be a loss IMO
Probably not but it’s also probably because they still have the secret service.
There was movie with Jame Gardner and Jack Lemon they were both ex presidents. James character asked that question and then said something about how they don’t give shit when you no longer president. Great movie wish it could end for Trump way did in that film.
I hope that this happens and every single SS agent assigned to this post quits. Who would take a job to be in jail protecting a farting lunatic? Welcome to the SS Johnson, your entire life will be spent behind bars!
ACAB, and the Secret Service is full of cops. They like Trump. That’s very clear from their internal memos about the Oath Keepers prior to Jan 6:
If Trump tried to plan a prison break right in front of them, they would probably pretend they heard nothing.
They would be helping him.
Instead of El Chapo it would be El Cheapo
I know they do, but nobody wants to spend their life guarding anyone in prison their whole life, no matter how much they love him, at some point they will want something else lol
The SS assigned to Trump fight for the job. They love him.
Love to see them spend life in prison being his canasta partner then
It’s unsatisfying to say, but house arrest would make the most sense for the secret service.
But not for the judge.
One of the reasons he’s being found in contempt is for making threatening comments on social media. Jail stops that behavior. House arrest does not.
Why not just build a small presidential prison?
We already have prisons to hold spies.
I’m imagining the Magneto plastic prison, but in the middle of the Capitol building rotunda.
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Just in case any future presidents need it. /s
Maybe we would finally get prison reform, then
Throw him in a solitary super max prison cell. Security won’t be needed.
Apparently it’s not as safe as that unless they put more effort into having trusted people in the control room.
If he ends up in jail he will definitely be in a segregation unit. Which is solitary in most county jails.
Im sure he’ll be very secure without them. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/ADX_Florence
Why? If he’s a convicted criminal, strip his salary and all his benefits, including the secret service.
