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this post was submitted on 03 Jun 2024
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politics
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I know what I'm about to say is not going to get a ton of love here buuuut....
I'd argue that if you're a former president, you SHOULD get deferential sentencing. Too much potential for abuse otherwise. Imagine if Trump won in 2024 and suddenly Biden's document retention case got re-opened and he got the harshest possible sentence.
Similarly but separately, major party nominees should get deferential sentencing. It's an influence on the political process, and you should err on the side of having less influence. If you lock up a nominee so they can't campaign, it's not really a fair election. ESPECIALLY when it's a crime from 8 years ago.
Like, still get sentenced within the guidelines of the crime, but just towards the more lenient edge. If someone is guilty of murder you can't NOT put them in prison. But if the penalty for the crime doesn't require prison, it's quite a leap to get to prison on a former president, current nominee.
I get that you are trying to explain a method to prevent the system from being abused against political rivals. But Trump was unanimously found guilty of 34 counts by a jury. He attacked the judge, the court and the jury during the trial, and continues to disregard the law. It will send a clear message that he is above the law if he gets a lesser sentence than Cohen.
Presidents are above the law while they're in office. This case is unique because it happened before he was in office. The message that will really be sent is "wait until you're actually president to do would-be illegal shit".
Still worth handing him a harsh sentence, just to put the orange fascist fuck behind bars, but there shouldn't be any misconceptions about some true notion of justice here. Trump is just a moron, and didn't know how to play the game correctly.
Every time I learn a new thing about our government it looks even more fucked up and unworkable. I know those guys were on laudenum and cocaine and drunk off their asses when they wrote the Constitution but goddamn were they fucked up.
34 Felonies, interfering with the election that got him to be president.... Yeah, lock his ass up. He's gotten away with enough bullshit his entire life that if it were anyone else that didn't have a rich daddy, they'd been in jail decades ago for decades to come.
It's not "above the law" when the penalty is still within the range of punishments listed in the law broken. The former president and/or nominee would still be punished according to the law, just at the lower bound allowed by judicial discretion.
Counterpoint is that with great power, comes great responsibility, and those at the top should have even MORE oversight and even harsher penalties when they step out of line. For some reason (well, it's not much of a mystery - it's about power and money), it's completely backwards - those in power are almost never accountable for anything they do.