How Likely Is It That Donald Trump Will Go To Jail?

Donald Trump has been formally indicted for allegedly trying to overturn the 2020 presidential election, escalating into the January 6 Capitol riots.

An indictment is a written statement of criminal charges against a person approved by a grand jury, a group of 23 people who consider whether there is probable cause that a person committed a crime. 

Trump has been charged with four counts related to his actions after his loss in the 2020 presidential election: conspiracy to defraud the United States; conspiracy to obstruct an official proceeding; obstruction of and attempting to obstruct an official proceeding; and conspiracy against rights.

It marks Donald Trump’s third indictment in four months, but this time, Special Counsel Jack Smith is pushing for a speedy trial, with Trump facing a string of criminal charges.

So can Donald Trump survive three indictments and go on to win the 2024 US Presidential election? 

On today’s episode of The Briefing Associate Professor David Smith, from the US Studies Centre at the University of Sydney, joins Tom Tilley to discuss the likelihood of Trump going to prison.

“He could definitely go to jail because of these charges. These are very serious. The other two charges I don’t think that he would have ended up in prison as a result of those but these ones If he is proven guilty, he would definitely be A candidate for prison.”

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