There is a prison cell waiting for Don the Con Trump! Trump should be locked up for the remainder of his life, which probably only be less than 15 years anyway.
Colour me biased, but I am of the opinion that if a politician is convicted of a crime, they should get HIGHER punishments than normal people, and they should be judged more harshly (same goes for other groups with outsized power, like police, judges, lawyers etc.) As a politician, you shouldn't get a kid glove treatment. You write laws. If you are incapable of or unwilling to stay within the boundaries of the law, you should get smacked down WAY harder than other people. This reasoning applies to police, lawyers, judges and other similarly empowered individuals. Society has entrusted you with an outsized amount of power, and abuse of power needs to be curb stomped regardless of how small that abuse it.
@@notoriousgoblin83 Static percentages are disproportionately punishing for the lowest earners. I'd say a logarithmic scale would be better for fines (to illustrate, the penalty for a given crime could be 10% of income for a poor individual, but 50% for someone more well-off).
That similarity is pretty apt, due to the law being written with the understanding that different judges will decide, that being the d20 roll. At the same time unlike dnd once convicted there will be a minimum.
I'm just trying to figure out whether Intelligence or Charisma is trumpy's "dump stat". Probably Intelligence, because he's mind-numbingly stupid, yet still has legions of mouth breathing disciples.
That he was President should mean he gets *harsher* punishment, not more lenient. The more power you have, the greater a responsibility you have to be careful with it.
I love how Scowl Owl started as a commentator on Legal Eagle's reviews of Top Gun and A Few Good Men and is now a regular guest lawyer! So glad Spencer joined the team!
I thought as a former JAG he might be able to comment on Trump co-defendant Walt Nauta. He's a former Senior Chief in the Navy and whether or not he'd be subject to the UCMJ would be interesting. Also - I heard Spencer got married. Or at least was supposed to be married by now.
For most people, the likelihood to re-offend for a case like this would be relatively low - once you get busted for stealing classified documents you're not likely to ever get your hands on any again. But for this guy - he's saying he's running for president which would put him right back in this exact same position to do the exact same crime again, so you'd think that the likelihood of re-offending would be considered extremely high.
@@therealkunr5147 thats exactly how sentencing works lmao the judge considers all factors and assigns a proportional sentence - the chance of re-offense is definitely considered
This is President Very Stable Genius we're talking about here. Remember what Senator Collins said after his FIRST impeachment? "He's learned his lesson." He NEVER learns his lesson. I mean he does in a way, he learns he can do whatever he wants without consequences, but that's not the lesson we want him to learn.
That's because he's White, was in Government, and has political power. All three of those combined knock an order of magnitude off any sentencing in a theoretical guilty verdict, which is itself very theoretical.
I honestly don't expect Trump to get any custodial sentence at all. If he does get sent to jail for any amount of time, it would seriously surprise me!
I seriously doubt he will get any actual prison time. Even if convicted of the crime, he will, at the most, probably get house arrest for the length of the sentence. Him going to prison would bring me quite a bit of joy, but honestly, I doubt it would happen.
@@andrewbogard2411 With you on that. He's too rich and connected to get real prison time, and even if perchance he does it will be in one of the nicer min security ones. Frankly, to meet his security needs they should shut down the SHU in a supermax and allocate that entire unit to him and his security detail - would serve the multiple benefit of reducing the number of inmates in solitary (which is incredibly destructive to their mental health), ensuring his security by segregating him from other dangerous inmates (just him and his security detail in the entire unit), and ensuring he sees actual punishment.
someone should hold a sign next to that, which reads something to the effect of "equal justice...unless you send DEATH THREATS... in which case you can threaten anyone else FREE AND CLEAR but the moment you threaten a REPUBLICAN SCOTUS JUDGE, you the the EVER LOVING PISS ARRESTED OUT OF YOU...
They (the moneyed) love to write all of those platitudes on the buildings to either hustle the people and / or to pretend that they are actually moral, when they are anything but.
These sentencing guidelines are SUSPICIOUSLY SIMILAR to trying to calculate XP earned in 3rd edition when you have PCs of different levels in the same party.
And probably the best? I'd imagine harvard law is already having a field day using this case in mock trials. With lawyers assigned to "trump" as the unwinnable case (like kobayashi maru).
even IF he gets the book thrown at him for ALL THE CRIMES (y'know, his actualy complete list of crimes rather than the little smattering of stuff that's doable to prove) he's rich, old, infirm, evidently of unsound mind & quite likely to be able to wriggle the few dozen centuries of prison-time he's earnt down to a year or two of house arrest & maybe some therapy. i simply can't believe he'd ever get thrown into gen-pop with a life sentence tagged to him. anyone with half a brain could deduce that his chances of surviving a week inside are basically zero, unless he's in some special prison for people as monumentally loathable as him. (there's a little one in my hometown; something like 200 staff & a couple of dozen multi-life-sentence types, it's pretty comfy.) which is ofc wildly unjust given how many people's lives get destroyed by being thrown in jail for harmless crimes, compared to the lifestyle of utter depravity (not the good kind) he seems to have been up to.
A big thank you to Scowl Owl for demonstrating that neither the law nor the sentencing guidelines mean anything in the face of a judge with a willingness to bend reality with a ‘convincing line of argument.’
Everyone keeps saying this, but there is no way he can keep quiet. So he will continue to get charged with new instances of the same crime. Eventually they will have to stop him.
@@lperea21nothing will stick. Politicians get away with murder... Literally. Look at the current administration >.> It would be great if we could jail them all and start fresh.
He will see jail time. Anything over a few years though? Ha I wouldn't hold my breath. No I don't have any faith in our system. It is literally broken. Worse possible thing that could happen is he runs for POTUS - WINS - then pardons himself. If that happened I wouldn't even be shocked.
I have 0 faith that this judge isn't going to just throw the case out or ratfuck the whole thing in his favor. She's already ruled that the 80+ potential witnesses cannot have their identities obscured, meaning those witnesses are walking targets for far right domestic terrorists.
Can't help but wonder how much more confidence people would have in the legal system if politicians weren't appointing judges... What a terrible system.
I think the US is the only developed nation to do it. I think Aus, Canada, and most of Europe have judges appointed by a non-political body and appoints them solely on merit and professional history. Political affiliations and who’s in the government’s top job at the time don’t get a look in.
Former Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich got 14 years for conspiring to sell a senate seat. Seems like Trump should get a LOT more time than that. (though I'd be happy with 20 years without parole).
So what I'm hearing is that even IF they convict him with his pet judge in charge and even IF he gets the maximum, there's still weed dealers in prison serving a longer sentence in a less cushy prison. Justice is blind indeed
Possibly. As they say, it's not what you know, it's who you know. But, it's entirely possible that judge (for her own reasons) gives him the maximum sentence. Sure, she's likely biased to the GOP and Trump but that doesn't mean she doesn't value her own skin/career. And putting an ex-President in jail for the first time in history has its own publicity perks. She'd be guaranteed to get talk show gigs and speaking tours until the day she dies.
While I agree with the sentiment, I'd like to add something: I think the point is that justice sadly isn't blind. The meaning of "Justice is blind" would mean that everyone is treated equally, as "Justice", or "Iustitia", the goddess of justice, doesn't see whom she is judging and acts based on the law, not based on who the accused it. It's one of those metaphors that can be understood either way, but that is the original meaning. :)
the justice being blind part would be hillary having private servers in her home and letting the russians hack said servers of all the top secret stuff on them then smashing hard drives and phones to prevent law enforcement from getting evidence and her not getting any charges against her, but trump has HIS documents in house and yet there's some sort of calamity there.....
@@Anaheylaatyahoo I'm not defending Trump, but is there even something like an honest politician on the federal level? I mean to get that high on the political position ladder you have to lie and backstab yourself trough party politics. And as we all know: party politics is a wild jungle with survival of the fittest aka biggest bullshitter as the No1 rule. This is equally the case in both parties. You don't get power by being young and naive... you have to be more ruthless than your competitors to rise up. Finally US President is THE highest position, hence demands the most ruthlessness.
@@peterpan4038 You are right that is the way things are, but it's not how it *should* be. By having actual consequences for corruption we could actually start to reform our political system, otherwise we condone it. We should not want nor tolerate this ruthlessness or corruption as "normal" it is not.
"The indictment contains 37 separate charges." Oh jeez, that's awful. "Although only 36 relate to Trump." Ah well, when you put it that way-...no wait that's still awful.
Want to feel even worse? One of the things going around is that in order to charge him with retention of a document, the document in question has to be named in the indictment. Because some of the docs are still SCI/Eyes only-classified, they can't be named in the indictment, and so he can't be charged with retaining them.
@@draco84ozBut it obviously doesn't matter... If there were 3 counts or 36 counts, the sentencing guideline seems to be the same? So just drop charges related to any docs so secret they cannot be named.
Literally. He went through that entire video explaining the guidelines until the end where he says "Oh but they're only guidelines and the judge doesn't have to follow it." So in other words, throw all of that math out the window. All it takes is a judge who loves Trump and he walks free. Even if he's guilty, he can still walk away and become President again. The American Justice System is such a farce.
If only it were only Trump. It's basically the Republican playbook. Like right now Marjorie Taylor Green is probably spying on you through your television.
I’m willing to bet Aileen Cannon will do everything in her power to help the very man who gave her her lifetime position. Make sure you have your popcorn ready lol
@@djentyman4002well she did set a very early trial date. At the very least, Trump will have to try to move it if he wants to delay things, so its nice that shes making him work to slow the process down
That clip is tremendous, it's YUUUGE. It's the clip of all clips. You couldn't ask for a better clip. The Empire State Building of clips. In my unbiased opinion, it's the best clip ever.
I'm so sorry you had to go through that process, but as someone who isn't a lawyer, this just gave me a fundamentally better understanding of the legal system as a whole. I appreciate you guys putting this one out, you don't get this level of coverage on this kind of stuff very often.
I liked the hell dive/Dante reference part in the beginning. It's rare you get to see a lawyer in his true form instead of the slick human appearance 😂
I seriously doubt Trump will ever see the inside of a prison. Even if he i somehow convicted the Judge will give him probation and an apology that she couldn't do more.
Even if he gets convicted in a federal court and gets a prison sentence Biden won't pardon him but will commute his sentence. So the conviction will stand but he won't serve prison time because Biden loves Republicans too much.
It is a decision that would embarrass America on a global scale, no point in causing more harm to our reputation globally. Even if it means justice will be served.
Agreed. This Judge Canon who in the past has leaned over backwards for trump. She will definitely go with probation and probably have trump's lawyers write the reasoning behind it.
I love how the federal guidelines for punishment can be treated by the judge like The Pirate's Code from Pirates Of The Caribbean. You can stick to it if you want but no one's going to fault you for breaking ranks as long as you state your reasoning and people agree. "It's more like guidelines anyway!"
As it should be. It's rare that things are black and white, there is almost always a grey area. You would be surprised how many times I have to explain this to people.
@@DefinitelyIntoxicated A road has guidelines. But if you don't follow them correctly you get punished for breaking the law. A judge can break guidelines all they want and still keep their job.
Because absolutes are not justice. There will never be a set of laws or rules capable of covering all of humanity's use cases. For this reason we must permit flexibility in judgement, and exceptional circumstances to counter accepted practice.
I have a bad feeling that this will end with another. "He learned his lesson. No need to send him to prison." or "The voters will decide about his future." I honestly can't imagine a man this powerful and rich going to prison.
Agreed. I've grown so desensitized from years of headlines with titles like "trump COULD see consequences for this", while the average citizen would already be sentenced to years in prison. He and others like him are treated like royalty.
Definitely. No-one in power wants to have that as a precedent. If you can, as president, kill hundreds of thousands of civilians based on lies, break into your opponent's headquarters, bomb a hospital run by MSF, then you can do anything without repercussions.
He is a Tyrant. The US will be rid of this cancer when a brave and patriotic individual finally decides to sacrifice themself to permanently take him out. Frankly I am astounded it has taken this long. Your system is utterly corrupt to the core and you need to start taking it back from the ownership class by any means necessary.
"...laugh at the guidelines range and depart to probation." Is a system where this is possible one you can really call just? How the hell has she not been forced to recuse after last time. Judge shopping is insane.
Citizens have the duty to abolish a government that doesn't secure the unalienable rights of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. And refusing to stop the dissemination of information that is expected to cause exceptionally grave danger to the United States is definitely not helping us with that. It's treason at best.
@@immediateegret2120Kenosha county in Wisconsin has an interesting system that some may think as a slight improvement. A judge is assigned to oversee the trial. Up to a certain point (before trial, not during), either attorney has the right to ask for a substitution of judges and the request is presumed to have a right to be granted. The flip side is that if you request substitution, you are randomly assigned another judge and you are stuck with that one pretty much no matter what. Due to this, there’s usually an objectively compelling reason to request substitution and attorneys are careful to exercise it.
Thank you ScowlOwl for doing this intense research and explaining it in layman terms. I had to take several breaks just to chew through the dense brief, and you are thorough and concise. I can't imagine trying to put this madness together cohesively for a presentation.
@@Southernswag8283 Do you think he didn't do the things he's charged with? He did it, clearly, plain for all to see, while recording it to make sure they had it as evidence later, and then just tries to claim he's brilliant and already solved that issue with his mind. Yup, he just thought the problem away and bam, all the documents are suddenly unclassified, ready for use as dinner parting gifts (or at least, what, a funny talking point? idek...).
It is amusing because YuGiOh players often need to be lawyers to resolve card effects but also regularly are illiterate and don't read the card effects (or read them properly). I say this as a YGO player, and because it is a common meme that we don't read.
@@OpDDay2001 Doesn't help that a not-insignificant portion of players use foreign language cards bc they're often cheaper. Screw being literate in English, better hope you're also literate in Japanese, French, Italian, Spanish, and a few Slavic languages for good measure. Source: I'm a former yugioh player - switched to mtg bc I wanted to go semi-casual and not have to deal with the same cards forever (yay for limited formats) and then stopped that too bc health issues prevent me from going out much. MTG has the same issue, which is why I mostly went to draft tournaments later on.
@@Southernswag8283 "He won’t be charged." Trump has already been charged. Also, federal prosecutor success rates are over 95%, so if it happens all the time, then a lot of people end up sentenced.
Should Congress pass a public pardon review board similar to what some states use to prevent presidential pardon abuses? Definitely there should be a prohibition on self-pardons or pardons to cover-up a presidential criminal conspiracy.
This isn't a presidential conspiracy. This is a perfectly normal conspiracy. Everything he's accused of was done by trump the citizen, which is the only reason why he can be tried at all. Anything the president does as the president is all but untouchable. See trump's entire presidency.
Probably should, but that would require a constitutional amendment, since that's a separation of powers issue. The authority of the executive pardon cannot be altered with a normal act of Congress. That means it isn't happening even if the overwhelming majority of people want it, and there isn't that kind of pressure for such a change.
Yeah, I guess this sort of thing has never happened before so they didn't think to make a specific rule for it. Most reasonable people likely assumed it would be absurd for a president to try to pardon themselves.
@@tf2scoutpunch175 no they didn't. Everything illuminaughti claimed was copied was not exclusive to any one creator, or even UA-cam. Documentaries have used all those effects for years.
I've asked this on a bunch of different videos and other places and never got an answer: If this goes to court, how on Earth are they going to seat a jury? I am genuinely uncertain if there are 12 adult US citizens of sound mind who don't already know how they'd vote regardless of the evidence specific to their case.
Even in these times there are plenty of people who are turned off by politics and try not to think about it. Even for trump in favorability polls about 5% of the population report having neither a favorable nor an unfavorable opinion of trump, and 20% have negative opinions of both trump and biden - probably most people in both of those groups lack partisan leans sufficent to prevent them from judging based on the evidence. And even if you think someone with a partisan lean is incapable of judging fairly, can you prove that in voir dire?
My worst nightmare: being sentenced to prison and then sharing a cell with tfg. Despite me having no access to classified documents, I think I’m more likely to serve time for this charge than him.
I mean if we're being honest here, the judge is in his pocket and he's going to get either a ridiculously light sentence or no sentence at all if she can swing it. It will be extremely hard to actually appeal it and get a new judge and all of that, unless she just completely bumbles it and proves to show bias that they can actually use to remove her from being the judge. But most likely he gets out of this with no punishment, which would just be insane.
She shouldn't even be allowed to preside over the case. A judge appointed by the defendant has clear conflict of interest at that point. How she is allowed to preside over the case just shows how "all men are equal under the law" is not the case, and has never been the case.
@@wyskass861and even as a worst case, punting to an appeal is an option, because they just need to run out the clock until Trump is either in office again, or died of natural causes.
how is this important? since when is a witch hunt important? what is important would be hillarys servers and bidens corruption and his admission of corruption on national tv as he bragged about committing a felony and treason
The Confederacy and Nixon went unpunished and doing so has shaped our country, arguably, in a negative way. Please allow this man to see the inside of a jail cell for a substantial length of time. It is difficult to claim no man is above the law with Trump wandering free.
Nixon was pardoned. some claim it would have been better to write a specific list of charges that he was guilty of, and pardon him for each and every one of them. Trump on the other hand, faces bigger charges: Sedition or Treason on January 6th
@@lmojol9673 Inciting a riot as a means to overturn a legal election, taking top secret nuclear documents home and showing them to people without the security clearance to see them, keeping said top secret documents next to a copier where if it is ever proven he copied said documents and sold them, or gave them out. Ya know, nothing serious, just what most sane people have accepted, as there has been evidence stacking up and proven true along with recordings of alleged traitor Trump admitting to these acts while also appearing on news shows caught in the act of lying so badly not even his political party's news station could cover for him.
@@lmojol9673 Not treason - that's an extremely high bar in the US and even J6 is unlikely to reach that level. Sedition on the other hand would be completely apt. The trouble is putting together a strong enough case for the charge to stick as US law is based strongly on "intent" that would be very challenging to prove. Trump could just say "well I didn't know they would do that" and there's very little a prosecutor could do to overcome that as mindreading is not a thing that exists and "it's obvious" or "we all know" is not sufficient for the "beyond a reasonable doubt" standard.
Cannon being his Judge, I believe that no matter how guilty he is found, she will give him either a slap on the wrist (don't do it again Dump..) or she will just void it all together at the very end. That would explain why she is not recusing herself and going to lengths to make it a truly "fair and legal" trial. Let it go all the way through then ignore/set aside the verdict at the end as allowed by a Judge.
He has like 8 more cases he has to beat still lol. Even if she did that, they got charges they havent hit him with they can do for same documents in New York, and New Jersey. He is facing charges for consipiracy to defraud voters in Georgia, and there is heaping pile of evidance tieing hime to Jan 6th events. I mean he had 3 more criminal cases to fight and one civil in next year as is lol And like 4 more they still dotting i's on before they formally press cahrges on him for lol.
Yeah, I got that sense too. All of Jack Smith's work will be for nothing, in the end, and I frickin' hate that this is the most likely outcome of this clown show of a trial.
She's also specifically moved the trial out of the district where the crime allegedly took place to one where the jury pool is heavily weighted in Trump's favour.
Really sounds like the sentence for stealing and willful retention of one document is the same as 500 documents. So the message i hear being broadcast to all people with access to classified information interested in crime is "Take as much as you can, the punishment won't be much different"
Million dollar question, how much power does the Supreme Court have over this case? Because you know Uncle Thomas et al would shut it down given half a chance.
This breakdown of the federal sentencing guidelines is fascinating and so well done! But I have to be perfectly honest: I have absolute zero faith that Trump will be convicted, and even if by some miracle he is, I doubt these guidelines will be observed. People at Trump’s level of power and wealth are never held accountable to the letter of the law. I feel very cynical about this whole case.
@@HilikusMan Very powerful people have been taken down before. It is deliberately ignorant to act as if it never happens. I would say, the fact it happens at all is proof that the saying is very true.
@@lukeshepard9535 For every billionaire and politician who is actually punished for their crimes, there are dozens more who commit similar crimes and are never touched. They are the exception that proves the rule, the scapegoats that are occasionally thrown to the wolves to keep the rest of the ruling class safe.
@@screamingcactus1753 Thats a small group of people in the grand scheme of things. And my point was that because even some at all are punished is proof that they arent untouchable. Was never arguing that corruption didnt exist, or that others dont dodge consequences.
That’s because republicans will never hold their own party liable for the major offenses they make. That’s why they complain about “cancel culture,” but it literally doesn’t exist when your own fans and party don’t care.
Its still kind of is he is moving campaign money to pay lawyers, and only 30% said they would vote for him so he is talking a ton of shit, but his poles are falling more this goes on. At this rate he won't have a shot at all. Even his own party is starting to not want to be seen with him. I mean a ton people registered to vote in last year just to not vote for him lol
This is the first time I've heard a lawyer in the US openly admit that the system is purposely complex not in order to help serve justice, but rather in order for lawyers to continue to be gainfully employed. A lawyer that admitted the truth that the entire system is broken and corrupt beyond repair. Way to go America, way to go.
@@johnadams5694 Take your pick: obstruction of justice (many, many counts), perjury, suborning perjury, violations of the Espionage Act (unauthorized possession, concealment, removal, and/or destruction of National Defense Information), knowingly filing false court documents alleging voter fraud, tax fraud, bank fraud, wire fraud, campaign finance crimes & coverup, destruction of Presidential records, intentional interference with the performance of election duties, witness tampering, filing false public financial disclosure reports, bribery, coercion of political activity, misappropriation of federal funds, soliciting unlawful foreign campaign contributions, influencing government officials to withhold or alter a record, criminal solicitation of a felony, interfering with primaries and elections, conspiracy to commit election fraud, criminal solicitation to commit election fraud, obstruction of an official proceeding, conspiracy to defraud, conspiracy to prevent an officer from discharging any duties, interference in election by employees of federal or state governments, racketeer influenced and corrupt organizations (RICO) violation, and seditious conspiracy.
He’s getting nothing. Literally nothing. He’s got a line of judges who will obstruct and delay for him. He will die rich, free, with armed security you and I paid for.
Today I learned. It's better to do 10x of the same crime and get caught once, than get caught 10x (especially since the repeat offender would increase the time)
Count 19 is related to a restricted nuclear document from the department of energy. The president has no declassification authority over classification status of docs under the DOE. That one count alone could carry a different sentencing guideline and not be grouped with the others.
Exactly. The various intelligence agencies had to sign off on each one. The ones in the arraignment are just the ones that are bad, but not “this project’s very existence is a secret.”
Listening to the sentencing guidelines explanation, adding more documents wouldn't change the final sentence much. So the DOJ probably reasoned that they had enough.
Any rational, logical judge would have to take into account that OH MY GOD HE'S TRYING TO GET ACCESS TO THESE DOCUMENTS AGAIN and not lower the sentencing in any way.
Federal sentencing guidelines is the weirdest rpg system I've ever heard of, but I'm still willing to give it a shot. Devin is obviously the charismatic paladin, Spencer is the know it all wizard, and I'll be the smart ass rogue.
It’s an rpg that isn’t fair to new players. The judges for seem reason always seem to crit when fighting news players. Against P2W or seasoned veterans, they can’t crit and their damage is nerfed.
Great analysis, but it was criminally lacking a clip of (or reference to) Captain Barbosa explaining that the Code is more like "Guidelines"! I kept thinking of that the whole time and expected it to show up at any moment, but it never did... LOL
The more I know about the US legal system, the more I find it baffling that it's considered "Justice". The Judges can basically rule whatever they want and as long as they provided some semblance of reason, it's aaaaalll good. Given how Judges are politicized figures in the US, it's completely mental. Amazing breakdown though.
@@maythesciencebewithyou It's not the case. In most (democratic) countries, judges are bound to certain guidelines to prevent exactly this type of shenanigan. Also, in most countries I can think of Aileen Cannon wouldn't be allowed near the Trump case as conflict-of-interest laws would probably ban her. Having a judge that is prejudicial to the defense is definitely grounds for removal in most societies. For example if you had a judge that consistently gave higher (or lower) penalties to a race, that judge would not get those cases and probably be disbarred. If the judge's brother worked for a company that was before them, they wouldn't get the case automatically. Aileen Cannon may not be related to Trump directly but running as a Republican would get her off the case in most countries. Judges are allowed to vote but they're not generally allowed to have much public voice, for example, here in Canada. Some of that is via tradition (oh no, norms!) but not all of it. And conflict-of-interest laws and the right to a fair trial supersede judicial authority in the vast majority of cases. The goal is to have a fair trial not make judges happy.
If any civilian or soldier would get life, so should he. Bc If he can commit an unprecedented level of crimes, he can deal with the unprecedented level of punishment.
Donald Trump is 75 years old. A 20 year sentence would mean he'd be in jail until he turns 95. Given that the average lifespan in the USA is around 80 years, and DJT is not known for anything even remotely resembling a healthy lifestyle, there's a very good chance that he would die of natural causes before being released from prison.
I’ve taken law classes and I’ve passed with an average grade but haven’t felt like I actually understand it. Your explanation here was super easy to understand and I have learned something. Thank you
I mean hunter Biden was invested for 5 years and got community service for millions in tax fraud and a illegal possession of a fire arm . So..... not sure how fast this was expected to go?
I'm no lawyer or law student, but I imagine that the first case of its kind against a former president would receive all the continuances asked for. Uncharted waters
The we need job security line made me bust out laughing lol The mix of eagles' euphoria with your hardass humor is fantastic. like a scholarly, "dude show"
Easy remnind her her own state alreayd is pissed at her and might impeach her ass. She is judge for life but can be impeached the other judges in her district already vetoed her shit, and are pissed. She makes a mockery of that court, she will see impeachment papers filled, and have her career how ever short it is ruined even if she can beat it she will be joke for life.
@@nerfherder4284 How so? If she can manipulate the sentencing guidelines with her own legaleeze, I dont see how shes held accountable for being a biased judge
@topogigio7031 I mean, yeah, but DnD is clearly the most popular, seems pretty easy to make a reference to it especially if most people would get it? Other ttrpgs are just not nearly as culturally relevant
to be fair, this sounds a lot like calculating the CR of an encounter in 3.0 and 3.5. particularly when you get to grouping. so D+D specifically does seem like an apt comparison. edit: and then you reference the loot tables
I love Trumps claim that he didn't have time to go through the boxes, even though it only took his attorney an afternoon to clean out the boxes he actually gave him.
kiddo, I got letters from last year I have yet to open And you saying I should be ok with opening and scanning entire boxes? And thats what lawyers are for... They know mail. They get mail every day. They have a natural ability to seek out the important stuff efficiently I worked at a law office and a box of legal documents was nothing, because its what we do. But any client faced with a box like that would be immediately overwhelmed
@@artyomarty391sure. But then maybe....just maybe....he shouldve left those big old boxes behind in the first place. Don't have to go thru them if you don't have them. Also I'm sure you have a full time job. From reports on what Trump does most days, he definitely had the time to do this to avoid committing a federal crime
What he actually gets is a different thing tbh, it might be the same amount of time, but be put on house arrest. It's just crazy that it would be the first official crime he would get charged with. It's not the first crime he has done, mind you, but the first one he was sloppy with and got caught up in.
Sentencing guidelines, much like the Pirate's Code, are archaic, complicated, and only sometimes respected by any of the parties to whom they ostensibly apply In addition to the Scowl Owl and the Legal Eagle, I hope to someday see a Fact Falcon and a Verdict Vulture on the team to help round out the roster of Avian Attorneys 😄
Scowl Owl: "Whoever the sentencing judge is, are going to have a very hard decision to make." Not if they are an ethical judge, then the decision would be easy.
Facts. It's pretty clear that even if Trump was *technically* found innocent of any of these offensese...he doesn't deserve to walk free after everything hes done.
Thank you guys for explaining this so completely and easy to understand. 17 1/2 to 20 yrs potentially. I will happily eat my shoe if that happens....but I dont have my expectations of a non biased trial at all with this judge.
It's not going to be that, even if we ignore possible bias from the judge or other concerns. Let's do a thought experiment based on just the guidelines. Consider that the crime being used for the guidelines has a 10 year maximum sentence and the only way to impose more jailtime is by making the accused serve consecutive sentences. Then consider that that value was reached because of the grouping rules of sentencing guidelines and consider that the entire point of grouping *is to not stack consecutive sentences*. So why would you reach an offense level of 37 by stacking the offenses and grouping, only to count them seperately anyway? You wouldn't. That makes it pretty unreasonable to go over the maximum of 10 years, just by what the guidelines are actually supposed to do. Also consider that the highest value on the table, an offense level of 43, carries a life sentence. The offense level reached was 37, still 6 levels below that, even after all that stacking and grouping. Then consider that for a person Trump's age, 10 years possibly constitutes going to jail for the rest of his life. 17.5-20 years very likely constitutes going to jail for the rest of his life, making that a life sentence. That does not make sense under the guidelines.
You forgot the second part. Sure 17 1/2 to 20 yrs potentially. But only if the judge doesn't love Trump. Apparently it's just a guideline. Which means that if they don't want to follow it, they don't have to.
Fuckin hilarious to me how advertisers get to choose where to advertise, but creators don't get to choose whose adverts show up on their videos. I just got a Dailywire preroll.
"The judge is going to have a very hard decision to make!" Judge Cannon - "Nope! The only hard decision I'll need to make is deciding which dictionary to use to check how to spell 'acquittal' correctly!"
Now, you can no longer say that our justice system is equal. He should be in jail while being tried. And since he's not he is out there exciting all kinds of violence against the state.
@@josjos2203 not the point, the point is that plenty of non-trump people are walking around free before conviction. Jail is for people that otherwise wouldn't hang around.
The most fun part about all of this is that Trump can't help himself and will most likely say something stupid at some point during the time the case is pending that will help the prosecution. Going through the Federal sentencing guidelines was an excellent reminder of why I only practice criminal law at the State level where things are much more clear and concise regarding sentencing ranges.
She might be taking this really seriously where she didn't show Trump any favors after being shot down by the 11th Circuit. The big worry is that she will delay or issue a directed verdict of not guilty. But they have the New Jersey stuff as a backstop.
I just want him to go to prison no matter how long. The precedent needs to be set that the executive is not above the law. God save us if we end up with a president who does these horrible things but is actually an intelligent human being.
@@WackoMcGoose it is unclear if a former or even current president can be imprisoned because it has never arisen but it is not expressly prohibited by the constitution either so we will have to wait and see what happens
Sure but at the same time it is a judge that has already taken some serious heat nad the prosecutor is prepared to deal with, plus even if the judge saves him from the documents matter he still has the New Yokrk Fraud case, the Georgia election case, and the January 6th case
He got a very pro-Trump judge. But as Connor pointed out, this isn't the only case, and things could get worse. Did you know that New York State's largest maximum security facility is named Clinton Correctional Institution?
@@ConnorLonergan First off, screw Trump however... Out of curiosity why would you consider Jan 6th as an event that he would be legally responsible for where, to my knowledge, he made no call for violence? Also bare in mind how hyper-political the Trump case is. AS well as the recent sweet-heart plea deal Hunter Biden got which screams judicial corruption. Now consider that anything more than a wrist slap when both Biden and Hiliary, who did not have the President power to declassify anything at will, walked scott free would be such an on the nose display of corruption that it would basically demand retalation.
@@vectorwolf I don't think ruinin his reputation is a concern for him. In the eyes of every reasonable person, he has done that already, years ago and many times over. And in the eyes of the people who follow him he can basically do no wrong no matter what he does.
@@itsaUSBline Yes, I recognize that position within and contributions to a community would be among the factors to be weighed in the guidelines. The joke is that there would be a mandatory sentencing reduction strictly for wealthier individuals, which is - as far as I know - not actually a part of federal sentencing guidelines (if only because they are - as the video made quite clear - not mandatory).
This system of judges in the US is insane... Judges should not be elected and they should have limits to what they can do, not "advisory guidelines". 🤦♀️
Judges should absolutely be elected. What's the other option? Oh...wait...we know that already. It's the SCOTUS, who are not elected and who do NOT in ANY way represent the will of people of the US, but they're still all sitting there for the rest of their natural lives.
I greatly appreciated the Yu-Gi-Oh card references. I kind of wish they would have fused and created a 3 Headed Orange Skin White Ex President Card. Way more powerful than any Blue Eyes White Dragon
That was a seriously scary ghost that appeared at time stamp 20:55. That ghost concerns me greatly in regards to the unbiased application of the law in this case. To my un-lawyerly mind, that judge has already demonstrated a clear bias in favor of the defendant.
If you look at I think the last video before this one it talks about her. She already stepped outside her authority to defend trump and got slapped down by other officials because her behavior was blatantly in radical support of Trump to an unconstitutional degree. And now she gets to preside over this case. Good f**kin' job USA.
On the upside based upon the recent recordings and other filings its now believed that the DoJ has evidence that some of the documents were removed to his properties in New Jersey. So in theory if the case starts to go the wrong way there could be enough to create a secondary case in NJ (Eastern 3rd District Court). And if there is any evidence that he traveled to his Ireland properties with classified documents there would possibly be additional cause moving to DC or possibly the CIT Court.
They need to exhume Ivana's coffin. I'm pretty sure there's a boatload of docs in there. Especially as Ivana was cremated, but it took 12 pallbearers to carry the casket.
He's also using his social media platform to threaten the prosecutor & his family: (this is verbatim) “COULD SOMEBODY PLEASE EXPLAIN TO THE DERANGED, TRUMP HATING JACK SMITH, HIS FAMILY, AND HIS FRIENDS, THAT AS PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES, I COME UNDER THE PRESIDENTIAL RECORDS ACT, AS AFFIRMED BY THE CLINTON SOCKS CASE, NOT BY THIS PSYCHOS’ FANTASY OF THE NEVER USED BEFORE ESPIONAGE ACT OF 1917,”
@@nightfallgamingyt952 he did the exact same way he did in January 6. A number of times he made tweets asking people to come "represent" , "have your voices heard", and "be strong." All being the key phrases he used to incite the insurrection. The notion that someone has to use direct language to incite any form of unrest is ridiculous and shows a huge lack of understanding of both the legality of the situation as well as the meaning of words. Martin Luther King Jr started a number of riots in the US while delivering messages of peace.
One thing to remember is that Trump's an old man, and hardly in the best of health. A few years in prison could end up being a life sentence for him. A short sentence won't necessarily mean he's escaped justice. (To clarify, personally I hope he spends the rest of his days in a cell.)
Not to mention that he's used to a life of luxury and being able to do whatever he wants whenever he wants. Even being sent to a minimum security federal prison would be a huge culture shock for him.
Nah. Trump was made for jail. Just like he could become mayor of any red state city, he would get all of the fawning adulation he would need to keep the adrenochrome pumping through his brain and automatically be made head shotcaller.
Let's be real: He escaped justice. There is literally nothing that could be done to him in the remainder of his mortal life that would be suitably just for a lifetime of rape and destruction even before he took office.
⚖ Is that more or less jail than you thought?
✍ Supercharge your writing with Grammarly and get 20% off Grammarly Premium: legaleagle.link/grammarly
He will never go to jail, most likely house arrest.
How was this commented 1h ago if the video was uploaded 1min ago?
@@rangelfinal it was *published* minutes ago, likely uploaded hours ago
There is a prison cell waiting for Don the Con Trump! Trump should be locked up for the remainder of his life, which probably only be less than 15 years anyway.
@@davea6314 15 years is a life sentence for his body filled with cheeseburgers
Colour me biased, but I am of the opinion that if a politician is convicted of a crime, they should get HIGHER punishments than normal people, and they should be judged more harshly (same goes for other groups with outsized power, like police, judges, lawyers etc.)
As a politician, you shouldn't get a kid glove treatment. You write laws. If you are incapable of or unwilling to stay within the boundaries of the law, you should get smacked down WAY harder than other people. This reasoning applies to police, lawyers, judges and other similarly empowered individuals.
Society has entrusted you with an outsized amount of power, and abuse of power needs to be curb stomped regardless of how small that abuse it.
That's what the +2 for "betrayal of a public trust" is supposed to cover.
Really! To think you're worthy of bossing people around and then do this...
@@MunchKING+2 feels too small. Same with fines. They should be percentages of income.
@@notoriousgoblin83 Static percentages are disproportionately punishing for the lowest earners. I'd say a logarithmic scale would be better for fines (to illustrate, the penalty for a given crime could be 10% of income for a poor individual, but 50% for someone more well-off).
We should absolutely be holding our public officials to a higher standard. I agree with this 100%.
Today I learned that federal sentencing laws work like building a character in Dungeons and Dragons.
"what's my crime modifier? Do I roll with advantage for it being a federal crime?"
That similarity is pretty apt, due to the law being written with the understanding that different judges will decide, that being the d20 roll. At the same time unlike dnd once convicted there will be a minimum.
I'm just trying to figure out whether Intelligence or Charisma is trumpy's "dump stat". Probably Intelligence, because he's mind-numbingly stupid, yet still has legions of mouth breathing disciples.
It often is a roll against a Charisma save.
I have a feat to use my mind powers modifier to my thievery skill.
That he was President should mean he gets *harsher* punishment, not more lenient. The more power you have, the greater a responsibility you have to be careful with it.
Good ol Stan lee thought us a valuable lesson
Yeah but that isn't how it works and we all know that.
That's kind of odd considering Clinton was actually let off the hook for the same crime.
In fairness, the position of trust enhancement is an attempt at this, it’s not like this a novel idea.
That's the way it should work, but given how cops get away with murder, it shows that's not how our system actually works.
I love how Scowl Owl started as a commentator on Legal Eagle's reviews of Top Gun and A Few Good Men and is now a regular guest lawyer! So glad Spencer joined the team!
Just hope I never see him at work!
Who? Who?!
I thought as a former JAG he might be able to comment on Trump co-defendant Walt Nauta. He's a former Senior Chief in the Navy and whether or not he'd be subject to the UCMJ would be interesting.
Also - I heard Spencer got married. Or at least was supposed to be married by now.
@@ypw510
Just wait until he gets ahold of further JAG DeSantis then.
For most people, the likelihood to re-offend for a case like this would be relatively low - once you get busted for stealing classified documents you're not likely to ever get your hands on any again. But for this guy - he's saying he's running for president which would put him right back in this exact same position to do the exact same crime again, so you'd think that the likelihood of re-offending would be considered extremely high.
That is not how the law works💀
@@therealkunr5147 thats exactly how sentencing works lmao the judge considers all factors and assigns a proportional sentence - the chance of re-offense is definitely considered
This is President Very Stable Genius we're talking about here. Remember what Senator Collins said after his FIRST impeachment? "He's learned his lesson." He NEVER learns his lesson. I mean he does in a way, he learns he can do whatever he wants without consequences, but that's not the lesson we want him to learn.
can you even run for president with a criminal record?
@@Sealreth yes, unfortunately. Might lose the right to vote but not the right to be voted for.
Calling 17-22 years a "long" sentence is a bit strange when you consider mandatory maximums for minor drug offenses.
For someone pushing 78 years of age it would be.
He is unlikely to survive 10
@@elenna_alexia He is unlikely to survive 5 days without his regimented diet of cheeseburgers.
@@gladtobeangry trump when no hamberder: 😨
That's because he's White, was in Government, and has political power.
All three of those combined knock an order of magnitude off any sentencing in a theoretical guilty verdict, which is itself very theoretical.
I honestly don't expect Trump to get any custodial sentence at all. If he does get sent to jail for any amount of time, it would seriously surprise me!
I seriously doubt he will get any actual prison time. Even if convicted of the crime, he will, at the most, probably get house arrest for the length of the sentence. Him going to prison would bring me quite a bit of joy, but honestly, I doubt it would happen.
@@andrewbogard2411 With you on that. He's too rich and connected to get real prison time, and even if perchance he does it will be in one of the nicer min security ones.
Frankly, to meet his security needs they should shut down the SHU in a supermax and allocate that entire unit to him and his security detail - would serve the multiple benefit of reducing the number of inmates in solitary (which is incredibly destructive to their mental health), ensuring his security by segregating him from other dangerous inmates (just him and his security detail in the entire unit), and ensuring he sees actual punishment.
Yeah they are not going to “disgrace the office of the president” that way, I am almost certain.
@@andrewbogard2411 Yeah, I think house arrest is the most severe outcome that's even remotely realistic.
@@paulm.8660 We sentence you to luxury
Inscription on SCOTUS building: "Equal justice under law."
Justice system: "It depends."
someone should hold a sign next to that, which reads something to the effect of
"equal justice...unless you send DEATH THREATS... in which case you can threaten anyone else FREE AND CLEAR but the moment you threaten a REPUBLICAN SCOTUS JUDGE, you the the EVER LOVING PISS ARRESTED OUT OF YOU...
They (the moneyed) love to write all of those platitudes on the buildings to either hustle the people and / or to pretend that they are actually moral, when they are anything but.
We have a legal system, not a justice system.
"...except for those who appointed me."
Inscription on SCOTUS building: "Equal justice under law."
SCOTUS: "Yeah, but only for white cisgender heterosexual Christians."
These sentencing guidelines are SUSPICIOUSLY SIMILAR to trying to calculate XP earned in 3rd edition when you have PCs of different levels in the same party.
The Legal Eagle team on Critical Role when??? lol
Rules Lawyers
Well crap, now I wonder if it’s a “Bard exam” and not “Bar exam”. Have I misunderstood all these years? lolol😂
@@cjmars822😂 that's a good one.
Damn, our judicial system is on 3e and the rest of us on 5e. 😂
Trump is probably one of the most bizarre thing to happen to the legal profession.
And probably the best?
I'd imagine harvard law is already having a field day using this case in mock trials. With lawyers assigned to "trump" as the unwinnable case (like kobayashi maru).
Yet no one can stop him or make him face any real consequences
@@Dan55888eh except for now lol he’s not wriggling out of this
@@Janthdanl how often have we heard that?
@@Janthdanlwe will see. This certainly is by far the most likely thing to do him in so far.
I have absolutely zero faith that he will have to face any meaningful consequences whether he’s convinced or not, honestly
I think anyone with common sense would agree with you here.
Although we all wish he did
Let's hope.
even IF he gets the book thrown at him for ALL THE CRIMES (y'know, his actualy complete list of crimes rather than the little smattering of stuff that's doable to prove)
he's rich, old, infirm, evidently of unsound mind & quite likely to be able to wriggle the few dozen centuries of prison-time he's earnt down to a year or two of house arrest & maybe some therapy. i simply can't believe he'd ever get thrown into gen-pop with a life sentence tagged to him. anyone with half a brain could deduce that his chances of surviving a week inside are basically zero, unless he's in some special prison for people as monumentally loathable as him.
(there's a little one in my hometown; something like 200 staff & a couple of dozen multi-life-sentence types, it's pretty comfy.)
which is ofc wildly unjust given how many people's lives get destroyed by being thrown in jail for harmless crimes, compared to the lifestyle of utter depravity (not the good kind) he seems to have been up to.
The guy is free to roam everywhere anybody else wouldn't
A big thank you to Scowl Owl for demonstrating that neither the law nor the sentencing guidelines mean anything in the face of a judge with a willingness to bend reality with a ‘convincing line of argument.’
If he ever faced any real consequences I would be shocked. Too much corruption to ever have these crooks be held accountable.
Everyone keeps saying this, but there is no way he can keep quiet. So he will continue to get charged with new instances of the same crime. Eventually they will have to stop him.
@@lperea21nothing will stick. Politicians get away with murder... Literally. Look at the current administration >.> It would be great if we could jail them all and start fresh.
He will see jail time. Anything over a few years though? Ha I wouldn't hold my breath.
No I don't have any faith in our system. It is literally broken. Worse possible thing that could happen is he runs for POTUS - WINS - then pardons himself.
If that happened I wouldn't even be shocked.
@@lperea21 no jury could ever be unbiased enough to find him guilty.
I have 0 faith that this judge isn't going to just throw the case out or ratfuck the whole thing in his favor. She's already ruled that the 80+ potential witnesses cannot have their identities obscured, meaning those witnesses are walking targets for far right domestic terrorists.
With Scowl Owl as an official correspondent I'm very much looking forward to our growing Assembly of Aviary Attorneys
Would it be classed as 'bird law' (Philadelphia - I salute you)?
Attorney Turkey
Bird law!
Paralegal Pigeon
Aviary Attorneys : ASSEMBLE!
Can't help but wonder how much more confidence people would have in the legal system if politicians weren't appointing judges... What a terrible system.
Or at least mandatory removal if you appointed the judge personally… seems like a no brainer
Agreed totally - they should either be elected by the people or by an independent group of lawyers.
Anytime I see "liberal or conservative judge" or worse if they affiliate with a party, yuck!
I think the US is the only developed nation to do it. I think Aus, Canada, and most of Europe have judges appointed by a non-political body and appoints them solely on merit and professional history. Political affiliations and who’s in the government’s top job at the time don’t get a look in.
@@procrastinatinggamer Interesting.
Former Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich got 14 years for conspiring to sell a senate seat. Seems like Trump should get a LOT more time than that. (though I'd be happy with 20 years without parole).
So what I'm hearing is that even IF they convict him with his pet judge in charge and even IF he gets the maximum, there's still weed dealers in prison serving a longer sentence in a less cushy prison. Justice is blind indeed
Possibly. As they say, it's not what you know, it's who you know. But, it's entirely possible that judge (for her own reasons) gives him the maximum sentence. Sure, she's likely biased to the GOP and Trump but that doesn't mean she doesn't value her own skin/career. And putting an ex-President in jail for the first time in history has its own publicity perks. She'd be guaranteed to get talk show gigs and speaking tours until the day she dies.
Clearly it's their own fault for not being born rich.
@@vampireraefno, have you heard of a Ponzi scheme?
While I agree with the sentiment, I'd like to add something:
I think the point is that justice sadly isn't blind. The meaning of "Justice is blind" would mean that everyone is treated equally, as "Justice", or "Iustitia", the goddess of justice, doesn't see whom she is judging and acts based on the law, not based on who the accused it.
It's one of those metaphors that can be understood either way, but that is the original meaning. :)
the justice being blind part would be hillary having private servers in her home and letting the russians hack said servers of all the top secret stuff on them then smashing hard drives and phones to prevent law enforcement from getting evidence and her not getting any charges against her, but trump has HIS documents in house and yet there's some sort of calamity there.....
The greater the trust you violated, the longer the sentence should be. There's no higher trust in the US than President.
To be fair, who in their right mind would trust Trump?
@@Anaheylaatyahoo his fanbase apparently
@@Anaheylaatyahoo I'm not defending Trump, but is there even something like an honest politician on the federal level? I mean to get that high on the political position ladder you have to lie and backstab yourself trough party politics. And as we all know: party politics is a wild jungle with survival of the fittest aka biggest bullshitter as the No1 rule.
This is equally the case in both parties. You don't get power by being young and naive... you have to be more ruthless than your competitors to rise up. Finally US President is THE highest position, hence demands the most ruthlessness.
@@Anaheylaatyahoo The Republican party and electoral college
@@peterpan4038 You are right that is the way things are, but it's not how it *should* be. By having actual consequences for corruption we could actually start to reform our political system, otherwise we condone it. We should not want nor tolerate this ruthlessness or corruption as "normal" it is not.
"The indictment contains 37 separate charges."
Oh jeez, that's awful.
"Although only 36 relate to Trump."
Ah well, when you put it that way-...no wait that's still awful.
😂
Want to feel even worse? One of the things going around is that in order to charge him with retention of a document, the document in question has to be named in the indictment. Because some of the docs are still SCI/Eyes only-classified, they can't be named in the indictment, and so he can't be charged with retaining them.
@@draco84ozBut it obviously doesn't matter... If there were 3 counts or 36 counts, the sentencing guideline seems to be the same? So just drop charges related to any docs so secret they cannot be named.
We don't live in a world where men like Donald Trump have to face the consequences of their actions.
Literally. He went through that entire video explaining the guidelines until the end where he says "Oh but they're only guidelines and the judge doesn't have to follow it." So in other words, throw all of that math out the window. All it takes is a judge who loves Trump and he walks free. Even if he's guilty, he can still walk away and become President again. The American Justice System is such a farce.
Nor Joe Biden.
@@IDGAFWYT Let's not pretend the two are remotely similar.
@@IDGAFWYTJoe biden hasn't done something like this yet or likely will do so in the future
@@miz4535 no, unlike Trump, Biden is life long politicians, he is 10x worse
Its amazing how often past Trump calls out present Trump
It's genuinely shocking and eerie hearing his old speeches. Sounds like he was talking about himself the whole time.
@@kingace6186 "Every accusation is a confession."
If only it were only Trump. It's basically the Republican playbook. Like right now Marjorie Taylor Green is probably spying on you through your television.
So true, and yet will any of it matter?
This is actually very common for narcissists. They constantly project their own intentions on other people.
That ghost image while describing how the judge could basically waive the whole thing is so accurate
Basically fascism. He creates a safety net of cronies and they twist the law just enough for him to walk off.
In Australia we had a judge let a state politician go without having a trial. Didn’t even bother coming up with a decent excuse.
I’m willing to bet Aileen Cannon will do everything in her power to help the very man who gave her her lifetime position. Make sure you have your popcorn ready lol
@@djentyman4002well she did set a very early trial date. At the very least, Trump will have to try to move it if he wants to delay things, so its nice that shes making him work to slow the process down
@@j_117but the DOJ was the one who pushed it back from Aug to Dec
Oof, that footage of him railing against HRC describing exactly what he ended up doing himself is beyond perfect.
It's bigly perfect 👌
It’s as if every accusation is a confession or something.
It was the most beautiful tremendous perfect thing ever. Many people are saying this.
Nasty woman ❤
That clip is tremendous, it's YUUUGE. It's the clip of all clips. You couldn't ask for a better clip. The Empire State Building of clips. In my unbiased opinion, it's the best clip ever.
Because of HRC he made punishment regarding intelligent documents leak more severe. Tremendously perfect. 👍
I'm so sorry you had to go through that process, but as someone who isn't a lawyer, this just gave me a fundamentally better understanding of the legal system as a whole. I appreciate you guys putting this one out, you don't get this level of coverage on this kind of stuff very often.
I liked the hell dive/Dante reference part in the beginning. It's rare you get to see a lawyer in his true form instead of the slick human appearance 😂
More Scowl Owl please. Not that Legal Eagle isn’t fantastic but two knowledgeable, articulate, and entertaining avian lawyers is better than one.
You mean _are better_
@@gw6667 Of course they do.
I seriously doubt Trump will ever see the inside of a prison. Even if he i somehow convicted the Judge will give him probation and an apology that she couldn't do more.
Even if he gets convicted in a federal court and gets a prison sentence Biden won't pardon him but will commute his sentence. So the conviction will stand but he won't serve prison time because Biden loves Republicans too much.
It is a decision that would embarrass America on a global scale, no point in causing more harm to our reputation globally. Even if it means justice will be served.
Agreed. This Judge Canon who in the past has leaned over backwards for trump. She will definitely go with probation and probably have trump's lawyers write the reasoning behind it.
Or she will undermine the case. There is zero chance of a conviction
Ot she might just dismiss the entire case.
Two days after this video was posted, the DOJ announced they are stacking additional charges onto the original charges.
Is this to do with the additional materials allegedly stored in other states?
I love how the federal guidelines for punishment can be treated by the judge like The Pirate's Code from Pirates Of The Caribbean. You can stick to it if you want but no one's going to fault you for breaking ranks as long as you state your reasoning and people agree.
"It's more like guidelines anyway!"
The entire US judiciary system seems rather rickety tbh
As it should be. It's rare that things are black and white, there is almost always a grey area. You would be surprised how many times I have to explain this to people.
savvy?
@@DefinitelyIntoxicated A road has guidelines. But if you don't follow them correctly you get punished for breaking the law. A judge can break guidelines all they want and still keep their job.
Because absolutes are not justice. There will never be a set of laws or rules capable of covering all of humanity's use cases. For this reason we must permit flexibility in judgement, and exceptional circumstances to counter accepted practice.
I have a bad feeling that this will end with another. "He learned his lesson. No need to send him to prison." or "The voters will decide about his future." I honestly can't imagine a man this powerful and rich going to prison.
Agreed. I've grown so desensitized from years of headlines with titles like "trump COULD see consequences for this", while the average citizen would already be sentenced to years in prison. He and others like him are treated like royalty.
Definitely. No-one in power wants to have that as a precedent. If you can, as president, kill hundreds of thousands of civilians based on lies, break into your opponent's headquarters, bomb a hospital run by MSF, then you can do anything without repercussions.
@@adammccraw7379 Not years, life or death.
As long as the evidence isn't thrown out for BS reasons (still to be seen given the judge assigned), it's pretty darn conclusive...
He is a Tyrant. The US will be rid of this cancer when a brave and patriotic individual finally decides to sacrifice themself to permanently take him out.
Frankly I am astounded it has taken this long. Your system is utterly corrupt to the core and you need to start taking it back from the ownership class by any means necessary.
"...laugh at the guidelines range and depart to probation." Is a system where this is possible one you can really call just? How the hell has she not been forced to recuse after last time. Judge shopping is insane.
If she hasn't recused herself it is because she intends to overturn his conviction.
@@Vohlfiedshe should be ordered to recuse herself.
@@Spicypoptart1 yes she should, but by whom, under what authority? Recusals are effectively on the honor system.
Citizens have the duty to abolish a government that doesn't secure the unalienable rights of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. And refusing to stop the dissemination of information that is expected to cause exceptionally grave danger to the United States is definitely not helping us with that. It's treason at best.
@@immediateegret2120Kenosha county in Wisconsin has an interesting system that some may think as a slight improvement. A judge is assigned to oversee the trial. Up to a certain point (before trial, not during), either attorney has the right to ask for a substitution of judges and the request is presumed to have a right to be granted. The flip side is that if you request substitution, you are randomly assigned another judge and you are stuck with that one pretty much no matter what. Due to this, there’s usually an objectively compelling reason to request substitution and attorneys are careful to exercise it.
Thank you ScowlOwl for doing this intense research and explaining it in layman terms. I had to take several breaks just to chew through the dense brief, and you are thorough and concise. I can't imagine trying to put this madness together cohesively for a presentation.
I died laughing seeing Trump's indictment counts getting thrown face up as Yugioh cards. You two guys are absolutely hilarious. Love this channel.
@@Southernswag8283 Do you think he didn't do the things he's charged with? He did it, clearly, plain for all to see, while recording it to make sure they had it as evidence later, and then just tries to claim he's brilliant and already solved that issue with his mind. Yup, he just thought the problem away and bam, all the documents are suddenly unclassified, ready for use as dinner parting gifts (or at least, what, a funny talking point? idek...).
It is amusing because YuGiOh players often need to be lawyers to resolve card effects but also regularly are illiterate and don't read the card effects (or read them properly). I say this as a YGO player, and because it is a common meme that we don't read.
@@OpDDay2001 Doesn't help that a not-insignificant portion of players use foreign language cards bc they're often cheaper. Screw being literate in English, better hope you're also literate in Japanese, French, Italian, Spanish, and a few Slavic languages for good measure.
Source: I'm a former yugioh player - switched to mtg bc I wanted to go semi-casual and not have to deal with the same cards forever (yay for limited formats) and then stopped that too bc health issues prevent me from going out much. MTG has the same issue, which is why I mostly went to draft tournaments later on.
@@Southernswag8283 . Do you think him admitting it on camera and in court (through lawyers) is not him doing it?
@@Southernswag8283 "He won’t be charged." Trump has already been charged. Also, federal prosecutor success rates are over 95%, so if it happens all the time, then a lot of people end up sentenced.
Should Congress pass a public pardon review board similar to what some states use to prevent presidential pardon abuses? Definitely there should be a prohibition on self-pardons or pardons to cover-up a presidential criminal conspiracy.
This isn't a presidential conspiracy. This is a perfectly normal conspiracy. Everything he's accused of was done by trump the citizen, which is the only reason why he can be tried at all.
Anything the president does as the president is all but untouchable. See trump's entire presidency.
Looks like someone failed to understand the 3 Branches of Government and separation of powers concept in their Government and Civics Class.
Probably should, but that would require a constitutional amendment, since that's a separation of powers issue. The authority of the executive pardon cannot be altered with a normal act of Congress. That means it isn't happening even if the overwhelming majority of people want it, and there isn't that kind of pressure for such a change.
Yeah, I guess this sort of thing has never happened before so they didn't think to make a specific rule for it. Most reasonable people likely assumed it would be absurd for a president to try to pardon themselves.
@@itsaUSBline well Ford pardonned Nixon so it did kind of already happen
Your editor(s) are killing it. A credit in the video description wouldn't be a bad thing!
They copied illuminaughti
@@tf2scoutpunch175 no they didn't. Everything illuminaughti claimed was copied was not exclusive to any one creator, or even UA-cam. Documentaries have used all those effects for years.
@@tf2scoutpunch175Evidence?
@@snickerdoooodlethere's plenty of evidence that say they didn't lol
@@snickerdoooodle there is none bc it's just a misunderstanding at best, lie at worst.
I've asked this on a bunch of different videos and other places and never got an answer: If this goes to court, how on Earth are they going to seat a jury? I am genuinely uncertain if there are 12 adult US citizens of sound mind who don't already know how they'd vote regardless of the evidence specific to their case.
Probably only people who woke up out of coma that morning at this point
Even in these times there are plenty of people who are turned off by politics and try not to think about it. Even for trump in favorability polls about 5% of the population report having neither a favorable nor an unfavorable opinion of trump, and 20% have negative opinions of both trump and biden - probably most people in both of those groups lack partisan leans sufficent to prevent them from judging based on the evidence. And even if you think someone with a partisan lean is incapable of judging fairly, can you prove that in voir dire?
Welcome to the fellowship.
I felt a disturbance in the force... As if a million law school students cried out with joy as a new study aid is born
It's not a new study aid: they already knew that the rich get preferential treatment.
😂
My worst nightmare: being sentenced to prison and then sharing a cell with tfg. Despite me having no access to classified documents, I think I’m more likely to serve time for this charge than him.
And they would say “hey don’t do the crime if you can’t do the time”.
That made me laugh quite hard, the truth is always funny.
Don't worry, I'll visit you in jail.
What's a tfg
I think you are more likely to, considering that it is pretty much impossible to convict a president under the espionage act
If he gets some sort of punishment, am I sure it will be made, so he has to stay at home with an angle brace or something.
I mean if we're being honest here, the judge is in his pocket and he's going to get either a ridiculously light sentence or no sentence at all if she can swing it. It will be extremely hard to actually appeal it and get a new judge and all of that, unless she just completely bumbles it and proves to show bias that they can actually use to remove her from being the judge. But most likely he gets out of this with no punishment, which would just be insane.
She shouldn't even be allowed to preside over the case. A judge appointed by the defendant has clear conflict of interest at that point. How she is allowed to preside over the case just shows how "all men are equal under the law" is not the case, and has never been the case.
I will be astounded if it even goes to trial.
Prosecution could take the roll and change the judge though.
It will hinge on how smart this judge is to do as much as possible without going overboard and being obvious about it, allowing for an appeal.
@@wyskass861and even as a worst case, punting to an appeal is an option, because they just need to run out the clock until Trump is either in office again, or died of natural causes.
Such an important trial assigned to such an incompetent judge
how is this important? since when is a witch hunt important? what is important would be hillarys servers and bidens corruption and his admission of corruption on national tv as he bragged about committing a felony and treason
The Confederacy and Nixon went unpunished and doing so has shaped our country, arguably, in a negative way. Please allow this man to see the inside of a jail cell for a substantial length of time. It is difficult to claim no man is above the law with Trump wandering free.
Nixon was pardoned. some claim it would have been better to write a specific list of charges that he was guilty of, and pardon him for each and every one of them. Trump on the other hand, faces bigger charges: Sedition or Treason on January 6th
@@stevevernon1978 sedition or treason? lol ya right. On what grounds?
@@lmojol9673 Inciting a riot as a means to overturn a legal election, taking top secret nuclear documents home and showing them to people without the security clearance to see them, keeping said top secret documents next to a copier where if it is ever proven he copied said documents and sold them, or gave them out. Ya know, nothing serious, just what most sane people have accepted, as there has been evidence stacking up and proven true along with recordings of alleged traitor Trump admitting to these acts while also appearing on news shows caught in the act of lying so badly not even his political party's news station could cover for him.
@@lmojol9673 The capital?
@@lmojol9673 Not treason - that's an extremely high bar in the US and even J6 is unlikely to reach that level.
Sedition on the other hand would be completely apt. The trouble is putting together a strong enough case for the charge to stick as US law is based strongly on "intent" that would be very challenging to prove. Trump could just say "well I didn't know they would do that" and there's very little a prosecutor could do to overcome that as mindreading is not a thing that exists and "it's obvious" or "we all know" is not sufficient for the "beyond a reasonable doubt" standard.
Cannon being his Judge, I believe that no matter how guilty he is found, she will give him either a slap on the wrist (don't do it again Dump..) or she will just void it all together at the very end. That would explain why she is not recusing herself and going to lengths to make it a truly "fair and legal" trial. Let it go all the way through then ignore/set aside the verdict at the end as allowed by a Judge.
He has like 8 more cases he has to beat still lol. Even if she did that, they got charges they havent hit him with they can do for same documents in New York, and New Jersey. He is facing charges for consipiracy to defraud voters in Georgia, and there is heaping pile of evidance tieing hime to Jan 6th events. I mean he had 3 more criminal cases to fight and one civil in next year as is lol And like 4 more they still dotting i's on before they formally press cahrges on him for lol.
Yeah, I got that sense too. All of Jack Smith's work will be for nothing, in the end, and I frickin' hate that this is the most likely outcome of this clown show of a trial.
Could an interlocutory motion to recuse and subsequent appeal work?
She's also specifically moved the trial out of the district where the crime allegedly took place to one where the jury pool is heavily weighted in Trump's favour.
@@Pendelton7030Thank god for that.
Really sounds like the sentence for stealing and willful retention of one document is the same as 500 documents. So the message i hear being broadcast to all people with access to classified information interested in crime is "Take as much as you can, the punishment won't be much different"
Dude my dad used to say that; politicians take enough to make that slap on the wrist worth it.
Million dollar question, how much power does the Supreme Court have over this case? Because you know Uncle Thomas et al would shut it down given half a chance.
Only on appeal.
This breakdown of the federal sentencing guidelines is fascinating and so well done! But I have to be perfectly honest: I have absolute zero faith that Trump will be convicted, and even if by some miracle he is, I doubt these guidelines will be observed. People at Trump’s level of power and wealth are never held accountable to the letter of the law. I feel very cynical about this whole case.
Finally someone speaking truths. It's so cute that so many in the US still believe that "all men are equal under the law".
Yeah, in the great ol' USA it turns out that money puts a thumb on the scale in the wealthy criminal's favor
@@HilikusMan Very powerful people have been taken down before. It is deliberately ignorant to act as if it never happens. I would say, the fact it happens at all is proof that the saying is very true.
@@lukeshepard9535 For every billionaire and politician who is actually punished for their crimes, there are dozens more who commit similar crimes and are never touched. They are the exception that proves the rule, the scapegoats that are occasionally thrown to the wolves to keep the rest of the ruling class safe.
@@screamingcactus1753 Thats a small group of people in the grand scheme of things. And my point was that because even some at all are punished is proof that they arent untouchable. Was never arguing that corruption didnt exist, or that others dont dodge consequences.
The day Donald Trump sees a single day of actual jail time, I’ll eat my hat. And I’ll do it with a smile.
It’s almost as if he can do no wrong.
@@cy_young_9104 no he does alot of wrong but he's so insulated from concequences whats even the point?
Same
Echoing my thoughts exactly.
I suspect even he gets convicted and get prison time, it would end up be more like a house arrest than actually serving in prison.
If any other politician had these legal troubles it would be a career ender, Somehow it doesnt apply to Trump
I think it does, Indies are jumping ship
Welcome to America where the right is showing its true colors
That’s because republicans will never hold their own party liable for the major offenses they make. That’s why they complain about “cancel culture,” but it literally doesn’t exist when your own fans and party don’t care.
Its still kind of is he is moving campaign money to pay lawyers, and only 30% said they would vote for him so he is talking a ton of shit, but his poles are falling more this goes on. At this rate he won't have a shot at all. Even his own party is starting to not want to be seen with him. I mean a ton people registered to vote in last year just to not vote for him lol
His rabid fan base views him as a God, literally nothing he does will make them change their view. Reality doesn't matter to those people
This is the first time I've heard a lawyer in the US openly admit that the system is purposely complex not in order to help serve justice, but rather in order for lawyers to continue to be gainfully employed. A lawyer that admitted the truth that the entire system is broken and corrupt beyond repair. Way to go America, way to go.
Sadly, I'll continue to doubt Trump gets any jail time for his crimes until he's actually sitting in prison.
What a disingenuous way to word showing top secret documents to random people at his resort and storing them randomly in bathrooms and basements
@@sirsaltines4667I wouldn’t engage. They’re just arguing in bad faith.
@@johnadams5694 Take your pick: obstruction of justice (many, many counts), perjury, suborning perjury, violations of the Espionage Act (unauthorized possession, concealment, removal, and/or destruction of National Defense Information), knowingly filing false court documents alleging voter fraud, tax fraud, bank fraud, wire fraud, campaign finance crimes & coverup, destruction of Presidential records, intentional interference with the performance of election duties, witness tampering, filing false public financial disclosure reports, bribery, coercion of political activity, misappropriation of federal funds, soliciting unlawful foreign campaign contributions, influencing government officials to withhold or alter a record, criminal solicitation of a felony, interfering with primaries and elections, conspiracy to commit election fraud, criminal solicitation to commit election fraud, obstruction of an official proceeding, conspiracy to defraud, conspiracy to prevent an officer from discharging any duties, interference in election by employees of federal or state governments, racketeer influenced and corrupt organizations (RICO) violation, and seditious conspiracy.
@@johnadams5694 Wilfully ignorant bluster doesn't work on the western legal system comrade. Stick to the people you can actually fool.
@@cyberneticraven358 that’s not bad faith it’s called denial. Also I agree with Wade, I’ll believe it when I see it.
“17 years” Hell Yeah! “10 years”, ok, still appropriate. “Possibly just probation if the judge feels like it”? Wait, stop, go back.
He’s getting nothing. Literally nothing. He’s got a line of judges who will obstruct and delay for him. He will die rich, free, with armed security you and I paid for.
Today I learned. It's better to do 10x of the same crime and get caught once, than get caught 10x (especially since the repeat offender would increase the time)
Not getting caught is even better.
@@sabymondal The best crime is no crime.
I would say this is actually reasonable way to punish crimes
That's why serial killers only get caught once
It’s hilarious listening to all of this detail and imagining Trumps lawyer trying to explain it to him!
Count 19 is related to a restricted nuclear document from the department of energy. The president has no declassification authority over classification status of docs under the DOE. That one count alone could carry a different sentencing guideline and not be grouped with the others.
And let's ignore the things he's not being charged for because the documents are too secret STILL to be presented as evidence.
Exactly. The various intelligence agencies had to sign off on each one. The ones in the arraignment are just the ones that are bad, but not “this project’s very existence is a secret.”
Listening to the sentencing guidelines explanation, adding more documents wouldn't change the final sentence much. So the DOJ probably reasoned that they had enough.
In this dystopia of a world, I think it is unfortunately likely that Trump will get off scot-free
Sure seems like a potentially sympathetic judge would be able to mess around with the sentencing guidelines A LOT....
Can only hope so, clearly politically motivated can’t have it
NS ....
Multi billinioner Never goes to jail ....
both him and the biden family will never serve time lol
@@guyver9688Bernie Madoff was worth ~$65B. He got sent to prison.
Any rational, logical judge would have to take into account that OH MY GOD HE'S TRYING TO GET ACCESS TO THESE DOCUMENTS AGAIN and not lower the sentencing in any way.
I can’t be the only one watching the sentencing guideline breakdown and thinking that this was designed by DND fans.
A +2 to their criminal level 😂
Trick is, this stuff was issued in 2e days.
Exactly, when I saw the +4 I was like wait a minute....
Trump put all of his skill points in bluff and still fumbled the check.
A shame the whole thing still feels like a "roll with advantage" situation.
This is the best comment by a country mile
Federal sentencing guidelines is the weirdest rpg system I've ever heard of, but I'm still willing to give it a shot. Devin is obviously the charismatic paladin, Spencer is the know it all wizard, and I'll be the smart ass rogue.
It’s an rpg that isn’t fair to new players. The judges for seem reason always seem to crit when fighting news players. Against P2W or seasoned veterans, they can’t crit and their damage is nerfed.
These videos can't get any better- informative and entertaining. Thank you. 10/10
But you havent even watched it yet
Great analysis, but it was criminally lacking a clip of (or reference to) Captain Barbosa explaining that the Code is more like "Guidelines"! I kept thinking of that the whole time and expected it to show up at any moment, but it never did... LOL
The more I know about the US legal system, the more I find it baffling that it's considered "Justice". The Judges can basically rule whatever they want and as long as they provided some semblance of reason, it's aaaaalll good. Given how Judges are politicized figures in the US, it's completely mental.
Amazing breakdown though.
That's the case in every country. The final judgement goes to the judge.
@@maythesciencebewithyou No. Canada has mandatory minimum penalties for several crimes. Treason, for example, has an MMP of life.
In the USA we have justice for the rich and/or famous, and justice for the rest of us. So it has always been. And evidently, so it will always be.
@@JoeOvercoat That's my point. what's true in the USA is rarely true everywhere
@@maythesciencebewithyou It's not the case. In most (democratic) countries, judges are bound to certain guidelines to prevent exactly this type of shenanigan. Also, in most countries I can think of Aileen Cannon wouldn't be allowed near the Trump case as conflict-of-interest laws would probably ban her. Having a judge that is prejudicial to the defense is definitely grounds for removal in most societies. For example if you had a judge that consistently gave higher (or lower) penalties to a race, that judge would not get those cases and probably be disbarred. If the judge's brother worked for a company that was before them, they wouldn't get the case automatically. Aileen Cannon may not be related to Trump directly but running as a Republican would get her off the case in most countries. Judges are allowed to vote but they're not generally allowed to have much public voice, for example, here in Canada. Some of that is via tradition (oh no, norms!) but not all of it.
And conflict-of-interest laws and the right to a fair trial supersede judicial authority in the vast majority of cases. The goal is to have a fair trial not make judges happy.
Man I love this Cliff guy, his notes are always so short and concise
If any civilian or soldier would get life, so should he. Bc If he can commit an unprecedented level of crimes, he can deal with the unprecedented level of punishment.
Some of it was war plans that should get him capital punishment just saying...
His breach of leadership is with every American, +2 pts seem too little.
Donald Trump is 75 years old. A 20 year sentence would mean he'd be in jail until he turns 95. Given that the average lifespan in the USA is around 80 years, and DJT is not known for anything even remotely resembling a healthy lifestyle, there's a very good chance that he would die of natural causes before being released from prison.
this is literally a 24 minute video that explains how a civilian or soldier *wouldn't* get life
"I just have to make sure I do all the legal research myself"
Jesus the shade you just throwing In that ad read 😂
Me: No one is above the law.
"Supreme" Court: Depends on how rich they are.
Dont forget "do you drink beer? Hic....."
SCOTUS: "Depends on what you mean by law. That's more of a guideline."
A bot stole ur comment btw, congrats!
No filthy poors are above the law.
That’s capitalism. No rules for rich people.
I’ve taken law classes and I’ve passed with an average grade but haven’t felt like I actually understand it. Your explanation here was super easy to understand and I have learned something. Thank you
what's really disappointing is how long have they been stalling this case just to try to find a loop hole against the court system
Kinda like 5 years against the sitting prez...
They’re trying to stall it so trump can pardon himself. That’s the only way he gets out of this
I mean hunter Biden was invested for 5 years and got community service for millions in tax fraud and a illegal possession of a fire arm . So..... not sure how fast this was expected to go?
@@skullcrusher9445 5 years against… Biden?
I'm no lawyer or law student, but I imagine that the first case of its kind against a former president would receive all the continuances asked for. Uncharted waters
The we need job security line made me bust out laughing lol The mix of eagles' euphoria with your hardass humor is fantastic. like a scholarly, "dude show"
Honestly, I am curious how the prosecutor will work around a obviously hostile judge.
Easy remnind her her own state alreayd is pissed at her and might impeach her ass. She is judge for life but can be impeached the other judges in her district already vetoed her shit, and are pissed. She makes a mockery of that court, she will see impeachment papers filled, and have her career how ever short it is ruined even if she can beat it she will be joke for life.
"asking permission to treat this judge as hostile"
Any sentence handed out will be challenged
If she still wants to be a judge after this is done, she has to abide by the law. She isn't qualified, so showing her bias would doom her
@@nerfherder4284 How so? If she can manipulate the sentencing guidelines with her own legaleeze, I dont see how shes held accountable for being a biased judge
I had no idea that federal sentencing is as complicated as rolls and modifiers in DnD
Not all TTRPGs are D&D.
You sound like a geriatric, "that Pikachu is cute in that Sonic the Mouse movie."
@topogigio7031 I mean, yeah, but DnD is clearly the most popular, seems pretty easy to make a reference to it especially if most people would get it? Other ttrpgs are just not nearly as culturally relevant
to be fair, this sounds a lot like calculating the CR of an encounter in 3.0 and 3.5. particularly when you get to grouping. so D+D specifically does seem like an apt comparison.
edit: and then you reference the loot tables
@@JeskaiEye Can confirm that it's culturally relevant, which TTRPG do people on UA-cam have AI Voice presidents playing right now ironically enough?
@@topogigio7031 you must be fun at parties
I love Trumps claim that he didn't have time to go through the boxes, even though it only took his attorney an afternoon to clean out the boxes he actually gave him.
kiddo, I got letters from last year I have yet to open
And you saying I should be ok with opening and scanning entire boxes?
And thats what lawyers are for... They know mail. They get mail every day. They have a natural ability to seek out the important stuff efficiently
I worked at a law office and a box of legal documents was nothing, because its what we do. But any client faced with a box like that would be immediately overwhelmed
Bone spurs must've flaired up
He also easily found the secret documents he wanted to show off lol
@@artyomarty391sure. But then maybe....just maybe....he shouldve left those big old boxes behind in the first place. Don't have to go thru them if you don't have them.
Also I'm sure you have a full time job. From reports on what Trump does most days, he definitely had the time to do this to avoid committing a federal crime
@@artyomarty391yeah, solid defense there, bud, especially when top secret documents are involved 😂
What he actually gets is a different thing tbh, it might be the same amount of time, but be put on house arrest. It's just crazy that it would be the first official crime he would get charged with. It's not the first crime he has done, mind you, but the first one he was sloppy with and got caught up in.
Sentencing guidelines, much like the Pirate's Code, are archaic, complicated, and only sometimes respected by any of the parties to whom they ostensibly apply
In addition to the Scowl Owl and the Legal Eagle, I hope to someday see a Fact Falcon and a Verdict Vulture on the team to help round out the roster of Avian Attorneys 😄
What would be the alternative to sentencing guidelines?
You forgot the Birdlaw guy
Don't forget about the Pheonix that is always (W)right... not to be confused with The Kirito Is Always Right Foundation.
😂 nice.
Scowl Owl: "Whoever the sentencing judge is, are going to have a very hard decision to make."
Not if they are an ethical judge, then the decision would be easy.
Even easier for the unethical Judge.
"Hmmm... Should I sentence him to eleventy billion years in jail, or twelvety billion? Truly, the mantle of justice weighs heavy upon me."
@@CheshireCad Are you quoting anything with that? It made me chuckle
@@CheshireCadI would have gone with thirteenty billion.
Facts. It's pretty clear that even if Trump was *technically* found innocent of any of these offensese...he doesn't deserve to walk free after everything hes done.
Thank you guys for explaining this so completely and easy to understand. 17 1/2 to 20 yrs potentially. I will happily eat my shoe if that happens....but I dont have my expectations of a non biased trial at all with this judge.
It's not going to be that, even if we ignore possible bias from the judge or other concerns. Let's do a thought experiment based on just the guidelines.
Consider that the crime being used for the guidelines has a 10 year maximum sentence and the only way to impose more jailtime is by making the accused serve consecutive sentences.
Then consider that that value was reached because of the grouping rules of sentencing guidelines and consider that the entire point of grouping *is to not stack consecutive sentences*. So why would you reach an offense level of 37 by stacking the offenses and grouping, only to count them seperately anyway? You wouldn't.
That makes it pretty unreasonable to go over the maximum of 10 years, just by what the guidelines are actually supposed to do.
Also consider that the highest value on the table, an offense level of 43, carries a life sentence. The offense level reached was 37, still 6 levels below that, even after all that stacking and grouping. Then consider that for a person Trump's age, 10 years possibly constitutes going to jail for the rest of his life. 17.5-20 years very likely constitutes going to jail for the rest of his life, making that a life sentence. That does not make sense under the guidelines.
You forgot the second part. Sure 17 1/2 to 20 yrs potentially. But only if the judge doesn't love Trump. Apparently it's just a guideline. Which means that if they don't want to follow it, they don't have to.
Kudos for Yugioh card references, but the font wasn't nearly small enough .... :)
People wonder why there is no faith in our justice system 😢
I just don’t have faith in humans in general. I don’t see why they should still be alive. They have no actual morals.
Highest incarceration in the world, justice system generally on the wrong size of history jeez i wonder why
Both the legal and financial system are two-tiered.
"It's a big club, and you ain't in it."
Sure seems like Biden is.
Can't say the same for Trump.
The people always want blood. I hope he walks just as a big F U to the prison industrial complex.
If you have to have 'faith' in your justice system, you already lost.
“A good lawyer knows the law but a great lawyer knows the judge. “
And a great defendant owns the judge? “Greatest defendant in history!”
Play golf with the judge every other weekend.
You don't even have real money until you own a Supreme Court Justice.
I would think a President of the United States convicted of espionage against the same, would get the maximum sentence.
We can hope.
Incorrect, he represented the country, his will is more important then incorrect document keeping
@@m10lover All the more reason to hold him accountable for his crimes.
@@AnvilmanBecause of Executive Privilege, the President determines the document keeping protocols. And can change them on a whim, for himself only.
@@stevekjr9563what kind of kool-aid are you chugging?
Would you be making these same arguments on behalf of Biden?
Fuckin hilarious to me how advertisers get to choose where to advertise, but creators don't get to choose whose adverts show up on their videos. I just got a Dailywire preroll.
"The judge is going to have a very hard decision to make!"
Judge Cannon - "Nope! The only hard decision I'll need to make is deciding which dictionary to use to check how to spell 'acquittal' correctly!"
Her refusing to recuse herself is proof that she intends to overturn his conviction.
One does not go to jail when the Judge is your Defense Attorney.
Now, you can no longer say that our justice system is equal. He should be in jail while being tried. And since he's not he is out there exciting all kinds of violence against the state.
What do you think bail is?
@@SimonBuchanNzhe literally wasn’t given bail, only asked to stay quiet, thing that he clearly cannot do
@@josjos2203 not the point, the point is that plenty of non-trump people are walking around free before conviction. Jail is for people that otherwise wouldn't hang around.
@@SimonBuchanNz "Jail is for people that otherwise wouldn't hang around." Or violate their bail conditions.
@@Pyrian ... Yes, that's included in that statement?
The most fun part about all of this is that Trump can't help himself and will most likely say something stupid at some point during the time the case is pending that will help the prosecution. Going through the Federal sentencing guidelines was an excellent reminder of why I only practice criminal law at the State level where things are much more clear and concise regarding sentencing ranges.
Loose Cannon is the worst possible judge to be handling this.
Trump has the legal system rigged. It's so anti-American and dystopian that I'm terrified for the future of this country.
She might be taking this really seriously where she didn't show Trump any favors after being shot down by the 11th Circuit. The big worry is that she will delay or issue a directed verdict of not guilty. But they have the New Jersey stuff as a backstop.
I just want him to go to prison no matter how long. The precedent needs to be set that the executive is not above the law. God save us if we end up with a president who does these horrible things but is actually an intelligent human being.
That is truly a scary thought. (not that he goes to jail-he certainly should but that someone intelligent might try the same thing)
For that precedent to be set, the law would have to be amended so that presidents (current OR former) are eligible to be sent to jail to begin with...
@@WackoMcGoose it is unclear if a former or even current president can be imprisoned because it has never arisen but it is not expressly prohibited by the constitution either so we will have to wait and see what happens
@@WackoMcGoosewhat law says they aren't?
Divine intervention is unlikely
Didn't they already manage to secure a deeply pro-Trump judge? I'd be astonished if he gets any jail time.
Sure but at the same time it is a judge that has already taken some serious heat nad the prosecutor is prepared to deal with, plus even if the judge saves him from the documents matter he still has the New Yokrk Fraud case, the Georgia election case, and the January 6th case
He got a very pro-Trump judge. But as Connor pointed out, this isn't the only case, and things could get worse. Did you know that New York State's largest maximum security facility is named Clinton Correctional Institution?
@@ConnorLonergan
First off, screw Trump however...
Out of curiosity why would you consider Jan 6th as an event that he would be legally responsible for where, to my knowledge, he made no call for violence?
Also bare in mind how hyper-political the Trump case is. AS well as the recent sweet-heart plea deal Hunter Biden got which screams judicial corruption.
Now consider that anything more than a wrist slap when both Biden and Hiliary, who did not have the President power to declassify anything at will, walked scott free would be such an on the nose display of corruption that it would basically demand retalation.
Honestly, I'll be surprised if he sees a day in jail, but I'll settle for bleeding his finances dry and ruining his reputation.
@@vectorwolf I don't think ruinin his reputation is a concern for him. In the eyes of every reasonable person, he has done that already, years ago and many times over. And in the eyes of the people who follow him he can basically do no wrong no matter what he does.
12:01 dude you CAN’T just hit me with a fire joke like that out of nowhere
Scowl owl AND DND-style analysis of federal sentencing guidelines? It’s like Christmas in June. 😂
what does 'DND style' mean in this circumstance?
@@matthewmoran1866The original rules lawyering.
@@matthewmoran186612:09 these modifiers are reminiscent of dungeons and dragons
Unfortunately, we didn't touch on the "Wait, this guy's really wealthy!" mandatory sentencing reduction.
That would be in the unwritten norms section.
It actually did. That's part of the section on considerations. I feel like half the people commenting didn't even watch the video.
@@itsaUSBline Yes, I recognize that position within and contributions to a community would be among the factors to be weighed in the guidelines. The joke is that there would be a mandatory sentencing reduction strictly for wealthier individuals, which is - as far as I know - not actually a part of federal sentencing guidelines (if only because they are - as the video made quite clear - not mandatory).
This system of judges in the US is insane... Judges should not be elected and they should have limits to what they can do, not "advisory guidelines". 🤦♀️
who would choose a judge then?
Judges aren't elected, they're appointed by the Executive Branch. Did you mean to say they *should* be elected?
@@jazzx251exactly. Elected judges or appointed judges… either way, there’s a chance of someone becoming a judge who perhaps… shouldn’t.
@@tanya5322 at least an election system implies a term, which limits how long "they shouldn't".
just like how Trump's term got ended. thank goodness.
Judges should absolutely be elected. What's the other option?
Oh...wait...we know that already. It's the SCOTUS, who are not elected and who do NOT in ANY way represent the will of people of the US, but they're still all sitting there for the rest of their natural lives.
I do appreciate the tcg cards with +1’s used for the examples. This is brilliant.
Legal issues are so much easier to understand when displayed as YuGiOh cards
poketuber real????
I greatly appreciated the Yu-Gi-Oh card references. I kind of wish they would have fused and created a 3 Headed Orange Skin White Ex President Card. Way more powerful than any Blue Eyes White Dragon
He will insta-banish from bottomless traphole
That was a seriously scary ghost that appeared at time stamp 20:55. That ghost concerns me greatly in regards to the unbiased application of the law in this case. To my un-lawyerly mind, that judge has already demonstrated a clear bias in favor of the defendant.
If you look at I think the last video before this one it talks about her. She already stepped outside her authority to defend trump and got slapped down by other officials because her behavior was blatantly in radical support of Trump to an unconstitutional degree. And now she gets to preside over this case. Good f**kin' job USA.
Who is that?
@@marie-eve5165 Aileen Mercedes Cannon.
20:53 omg help I'm purely audio here at 12 AM in the darkness of the kitchen and I hear this??? I thought I was gonna die bro
On the upside based upon the recent recordings and other filings its now believed that the DoJ has evidence that some of the documents were removed to his properties in New Jersey. So in theory if the case starts to go the wrong way there could be enough to create a secondary case in NJ (Eastern 3rd District Court). And if there is any evidence that he traveled to his Ireland properties with classified documents there would possibly be additional cause moving to DC or possibly the CIT Court.
They need to exhume Ivana's coffin. I'm pretty sure there's a boatload of docs in there. Especially as Ivana was cremated, but it took 12 pallbearers to carry the casket.
@@laurahubbard6906A- are you serious?? what reason could he possibly have to do that? then again, it is trump soo...
The fact that he's using this case to create violence and civil unrest should be taken into account, similar to the family items.
He's also using his social media platform to threaten the prosecutor & his family: (this is verbatim) “COULD SOMEBODY PLEASE EXPLAIN TO THE DERANGED, TRUMP HATING JACK SMITH, HIS FAMILY, AND HIS FRIENDS, THAT AS PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES, I COME UNDER THE PRESIDENTIAL RECORDS ACT, AS AFFIRMED BY THE CLINTON SOCKS CASE, NOT BY THIS PSYCHOS’ FANTASY OF THE NEVER USED BEFORE ESPIONAGE ACT OF 1917,”
show proof that they ever intentionally caused or asked for violence, cause I have seen nothing that could support that argument of yours
@@nightfallgamingyt952 💯
@@nightfallgamingyt952 he did the exact same way he did in January 6. A number of times he made tweets asking people to come "represent" , "have your voices heard", and "be strong." All being the key phrases he used to incite the insurrection.
The notion that someone has to use direct language to incite any form of unrest is ridiculous and shows a huge lack of understanding of both the legality of the situation as well as the meaning of words. Martin Luther King Jr started a number of riots in the US while delivering messages of peace.
One thing to remember is that Trump's an old man, and hardly in the best of health. A few years in prison could end up being a life sentence for him. A short sentence won't necessarily mean he's escaped justice. (To clarify, personally I hope he spends the rest of his days in a cell.)
Maybe a heart attack from the judgement
Not to mention that he's used to a life of luxury and being able to do whatever he wants whenever he wants. Even being sent to a minimum security federal prison would be a huge culture shock for him.
Nah. Trump was made for jail. Just like he could become mayor of any red state city, he would get all of the fawning adulation he would need to keep the adrenochrome pumping through his brain and automatically be made head shotcaller.
Let's be real: He escaped justice.
There is literally nothing that could be done to him in the remainder of his mortal life that would be suitably just for a lifetime of rape and destruction even before he took office.
Would he still be given secret service protection?