It has been noted that the maximum sentences for all of the counts former President Donald Trump faces add up to a staggering 536 years in prison — although he’s not likely to face anything near that number.
Trump himself broke the blockbuster news Thursday that he has been indicted in Special Counsel Jack Smith’s investigation into his retention of classified documents under the Espionage Act, news that shook the political world.
On Friday, that indictment was unsealed, and the details of the whopping 37 counts rocked the news and political media, and sent Trump and his defenders into apoplectic rage.
The 37 counts Trump faces and their maximum sentences are:
- 31 counts of willful retention of national defense information — 10 years each
- 3 counts of withholding or concealing documents in a federal investigation — 20 years each
- 2 counts of false statements — 5 years each
- 1 count of conspiracy to obstruct justice — 20 years
- That adds up to 400 years, longer than the U.S. has been a country.
It is to be noted that Trump is indicted on 34 felony counts in New York over Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg and his grand jury investigating the circumstances around hush money payments to Stormy Daniels.
In the unlikely event that Trump received the maximum sentence for every count of that indictment, that would amount to 136 years in prison — or a cool 500 years for all 71 counts.
Trump is also facing the Special Counsel Jack Smith-led Justice Department probes into Trump’s conduct surrounding the January 6 insurrection, as well as Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis’ grand jury investigation of Trump’s effort to overturn election results in Georgia.
The Georgia case — which many experts and analysts believe presents a significant legal threat to Trump by virtue of the evidence that is publicly known — is also widely believed to be on the precipice of delivering indictments in August. Others believe that the Jan. 6 case could follow closely thereafter.
Regardless of the length of sentence, the prospect of Trump going to prison presents yet another unprecedented conundrum: what becomes of Trump’s Secret Service protection? The Secret Service has no protocol for a protectee who has been convicted of a crime and imprisoned, so one would need to be developed if such a situation arose.
