Former prosecutor reveals the one legal move that makes Trump’s prison sentence ‘far more likely’

Former federal prosecutor Andrew Weissmann warned Donald Trump on Sunday not to celebrate a legal move last week that, at first glance, might appear to favor the former president.

A judge on Friday postponed sentencing against Trump in Stormy Daniels’ hush money trial from later this month to Nov. 26 to avoid any appearance that he is trying to influence the election in which Trump is the Republican presidential nominee.

Weissmann said one change could change everything.

“If Donald Trump is convicted after the election, if he loses, it’s much more likely that you can think about sending him to prison,” he told MSNBC’s Jen Psaki.

At that point, he said, the former president would simply be a “Citizen Trump” and not a “candidate.”

Weissmann said postponing the ruling until after the election could also give the Supreme Court “far less incentive to step in” and intervene in the case if Trump loses the race for the White House.

“It just makes it less political,” Weissmann said.

Trump was found guilty in May on 34 counts of falsifying business documents to cover up an affair with Daniels. He denies this crime.

The verdict was originally scheduled to be handed down in July, but was postponed due to a highly controversial Supreme Court ruling on presidential immunity. On Friday, New York Supreme Court Justice Juan Merchan again postponed the verdict until three weeks after the election, saying that sentencing a former president who is also a candidate is “complex.”

Although Trump faces a prison sentence of up to four years, the judge could also sentence him to probation or community service, among other penalties.

Watch more of Weissmann’s discussion with Psaki below:

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