Trump Rolled The Dice Taking His Hush Money Case To Trial And Lost. Now He Might Lose Again.

For decades, accused criminals who insist on a trial but then lose have generally received far harsher sentences than those who take a guilty plea.

A long-standing, unwritten rule that evolved to avoid clogging up the criminal justice system could now work to sentence newly convicted felon Donald Trump to prison when he appears before a New York City judge next month.

The former president, legal experts say, has put himself on the wrong side of a process that rewards those who do not force the state to expend the time and money for a jury trial — and punishes those who do. Any normal defendant who pleaded not guilty and then lost their trial, these experts note, would likely see the harsher end of the sentencing range.

“If you spare the government the expenditure of resources and accept responsibility and plead guilty early in the process, you get some credit for that,” said Rebecca Roiphe, a former state prosecutor in Manhattan and now a professor at New York University School of Law. “Trump obviously didn’t do that.”

Trump also spent the entirety of the trial, from jury selection through his verdict and beyond, personally attacking the judge, the district attorney, the witnesses against him and the legitimacy of the entire nation’s justice system — something the vast majority of criminal defendants avoid doing.

“I can assure you, if his name was not Donald John Trump, this is exactly the person and the case where a judge would give a stiff prison sentence,” said Karen Agnifilo, also a former Manhattan prosecutor who is now a defense lawyer.