Former President Trump said he would be “ok” with being sentenced to either house arrest or jail time after he was convicted last week on 34 felony counts in New York.
When asked on Fox News’s “Fox and Friends” how he deals with the prospect of being sentenced to house arrest or jail, Trump said, “I’m OK with it.”
“I’m not sure the public would stand for it,” Trump said of house arrest or jail, in an interview with Fox News’s Will Cain, Pete Hegseth and Rachel Campos-Duffy that aired Sunday. “I think it’d be tough for the public to take. At a certain point, there’s a breaking point.”
The former president was convicted last week on all 34 counts of falsifying business records in New York, becoming the first former U.S. president to become a convicted felon. The charges centered on reimbursements made to Trump’s onetime fixer and attorney, Michael Cohen, for a hush money payment to porn actress Stormy Daniels.
He is slated to be sentenced on July 11, just four days before the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee. Trump’s legal team has vowed to appeal the case, but proceedings are currently expected to move forward as scheduled.
As a first-time offender of falsifying business records, Trump will likely not face jail time, especially given he has no previous criminal record. He is more likely to face a lesser punishment such as a fine.
Trump told “Fox and Friends,” he advised his lawyers not to “beg for anything,” noting “it’s just the way it is.”
He also opened up about the impact the conviction has had on his family and those around him.
“I think in many ways, it’s tougher on them than it is on me. They’re good people, all of them…everyone, everyone,” he said.
“I have a wonderful wife who has to listen to this stuff all the time. They do that for this reason. They do that, all these salacious names that they put in of these people, and I’m not even allowed to defend myself because of the gag order. Think of it,” Trump said, without specifying who “they” is. ” But they put this stuff in to create havoc. These are bad people; I know everything they’re doing. I know every move they make; I get it.”
He later said former first lady Melania Trump is “fine” while noting it is “very hard for her,” amid the coverage of the trial and conviction.
