Research has suggested that white-collar crimes are sentenced less harshly than blue-collar offenses, and the public too views them more favorably. Trump’s case is unprecedented, being that he’s a former president running for office again, so perhaps his sentence will also go against the grain. “Typically this is not the kind of case where you would expect a first-time white-collar offender to receive a sentence of incarceration,” New York defense lawyer Andrew Weinstein told CTV News. “But everything about Trump is different, so I don’t think you can look historically at other sentences because he’s just a different animal.”
That said, given that he’s a first-time offender, some legal experts don’t think it’s likely he will receive any prison time. “I’d be very surprised if there’s any sentence of incarceration at all,” NBC News analyst and former federal prosecutor Chuck Rosenberg. “Of course, he did spend a good bit of time insulting the judge who has the authority to incarcerate him.”
