Former US President Donald Trump might be sentenced to prison “for a long time” if he is found guilty in his upcoming trial for alleged mismanagement of secret government information, according to one attorney affiliated with the US Democrats.
Trump was charged with 37 felony counts in June on allegations that he illegally held highly sensitive national security information at his South Florida home. These included top-secret information about Washington’s nuclear capabilities and strategies in the case of an attack on the US or its allies.
Prosecutors, led by Special Counsel Jack Smith, claim that Trump rejected requests by federal officials to return the documents – some of which were stored in publicly accessible locations in Mar-a-Lago, including in an unsecured bathroom. Trump has denied all allegations of wrongdoing and has pleaded not guilty to the charges.
“People forget how damaging the evidence is in that Florida case,” Marc Elias, who represented the Democratic National Committee (DNC) between 2009 and 2023, said on MSNBC’s The Weekend on Sunday.
“It is literally about a former president of the United States stealing highly classified sensitive documents from the United States government, treating them cavalierly, showing them to people, storing them willy-nilly.”
Elias stated that the evidence, when presented at the trial in over three months, may prove “devastating” to him politically, adding that “it puts him in real danger of going to prison for a long time.”
The indictment was the first time a former US president had faced criminal charges from the federal government he formerly headed. In August 2023, Trump received another federal charge for allegedly attempting to change the outcome of the 2020 US presidential election.
He is also facing other accusations for allegedly fabricating business records.
Trump is the overwhelming frontrunner for the Republican nomination to face expected Democratic contender Joe Biden in the November election. In a head-to-head poll published by NBC News on Sunday, Trump led Biden by five points, 47%-42%.
However, the same poll revealed that if Trump is convicted of a felony, Biden would lead by 45% to 43%.
