Trump conviction threatens 'credibility' with military: California rep.

(NewsNation) — Former President Donald Trump's conviction on 34 counts marks the end of the former president's historic trial, but the fight for the case continues with his sentencing scheduled for July 11.

California Democratic Rep. Eric Swalwell joins NewsNation's “The Hill Sunday” to discuss the possibility of Trump receiving prison time, saying he should be treated no better or worse because He is a former president.

“When you look at New York, there have been about 10,000 cases tried over the last 40 years on this charge. Ten percent of the time, individuals went to prison. And this amount that was defrauded is one of the highest amounts ever recorded. He shouldn’t be treated better, nor worse, this judge seems pretty fair,” Swalwell said.

The charge of falsifying business records is a class E felony in New York, the lowest level of criminal charges in the state. It carries a sentence of up to four years in prison, although the punishment will ultimately be up to the judge, and there is no guarantee it will put Trump behind bars. Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg declined to say whether prosecutors would seek prison time.

This conviction does not prevent Trump from continuing his campaign or becoming president. And he can still vote for himself in his home state of Florida as long as he stays out of prison in New York State. However, the conviction raises concerns about Trump's possible presidency.

“As a convicted felon, you cannot have a security clearance, you cannot serve in the military, and you cannot travel to many countries that are our allies. We want our president to examine national security secrets, we want him to travel overseas, we want him to have credibility with the military,” Swalwell said.

In the short term, at least, there were immediate signs that the guilty verdict was helping to unify the disparate factions of the Republican Party as Republican Party officials from across the political spectrum rallied around their presumptive presidential nominee in difficulty and that his campaign was reporting a flood of fundraising dollars within hours. of the verdict.

Polls have been conducted on the prospect of a guilty verdict, although such hypothetical scenarios are notoriously difficult to predict. A recent ABC News/Ipsos poll found that only 4% of Trump supporters said they would withdraw their support if he were convicted of a crime, while another 16% said they would reconsider.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.