The security guard would also go to jail with Trump, writes the New York Times iRADIO

Already last week, at the request of the prosecutor’s office, representatives of the Secret Service and other relevant security agencies at the federal, state and city levels gathered for a hastily organized meeting with one goal – to discuss how to ensure Trump’s safety in the unlikely event that a judge allows him to be briefly imprisoned in a judicial cell for contempt of court.

The bigger question, which is not yet clearly answered, is how to “safely” imprison the former president if a jury finds him guilty and a judge gives him a prison sentence instead of house arrest or probation.

However, several sources the NYT spoke with say a prison sentence is unlikely for Trump, and if a judge eventually rules, the case will almost certainly drag its way through the appeals courts to the highest court for months.

However, the low probability does not erase the disturbing prospect of the presumptive Republican nominee for the US presidency being imprisoned, not least for members of the president’s security and prison service, who would have to face this logistical nightmare in the first place.

‘Uncharted Waters’

“Obviously we would be going into uncharted waters. No state or federal prison system has ever had to deal with something like this,” said Martin Horn, who worked in senior positions in the New York and Pennsylvania state prison systems.

Protecting Trump in a prison environment would mean housing him separately from his fellow inmates as well as controlling his food and personal belongings. The facility would have to be patrolled 24 hours a day by a group of agents who would be armed with firearms, even though they are prohibited in prisons.

Another NYT source described that there are several state prisons in New York that have been closed or partially closed, and could thus serve to hold the ex-president and house his security guards.

Secret Service spokesman Anthony Guglielmi declined to discuss specific “protection operations” with reporters, but said federal law requires the Secret Service to protect former presidents using the latest technology, intelligence and tactics.

New York State Prisons spokesman Thomas Mailey said his office could not speculate on how it would handle a person who has not yet been sentenced. However, according to him, the system is ready to approach people with special security and health needs, mental and physical. “The department would find a suitable place for the former president,” said Mailey’s colleague in a related office, Frank Dwyer.

The trial, which continues in Manhattan, is one of four criminal trials involving the former president and likely the only one to be decided by a jury before the presidential election in November. Prosecutors accuse Trump of falsifying financial records on 34 counts.

If the jury finds him guilty, Judge Juan Merchan could choose from a range of sentences ranging from probation to four years in prison, although multi-year prison terms for first-time offenders in Trump’s age would be extreme, the NYT wrote.

CTK

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