How Trump’s denial strategy could hurt him at sentencing

Donald Trump has had a lot to say since pleading guilty last week to hush money charges.

He claimed the case was rigged, falsely linked President Joe Biden to state prosecutors, called the main witness against him a “crook” and said the judge was a “devil” and “highly litigious.”

What he has not done is utter any variation of the words that might be of most benefit to him at his sentencing hearing next month: “I’m sorry.”

It’s a truism of the criminal justice system that defendants hoping for lenient treatment at their sentencing are expected to take responsibility for their actions, even express remorse. But this stands in contrast to Trump’s long-standing refusal to admit any wrongdoing, a tone he often adopts to project strength and present himself as a warrior amid relentless attacks. While this strategy may resonate with his most loyal political supporters, it failed during his New York criminal trial and could complicate his legal team’s efforts to avoid a harsher sentence.

“I think the fact that he has no remorse — to the contrary, he continues to deny his guilt — will hurt him at sentencing,” said Jeffrey Cohen, an associate professor at Boston College Law School and a former federal prosecutor in Massachusetts. “It’s one of those things that the judge can point to and that everybody knows about — that he simply denies it — and use it as a strong basis for his sentence.”

Trump will be sentenced on July 11 by Judge Juan M. Marchan, who raised the issue of a prison sentence during the trial because the former president had been fined thousands of dollars for violating a gag order. He has been a target of Trump’s persistent ire.

Trump has been found guilty of 34 felony counts of falsifying business records, for which he could face up to four years in prison. It’s unclear whether prosecutors intend to seek prison time — Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg dodged a question Thursday — or whether Marchant would sentence him to time behind bars, even if that were the recommendation.

As part of a broader, vague backlash against the case, Trump has attempted to downplay any concerns about his punishment, saying in a “Fox & Friends Weekend” interview that aired Sunday that he had no problem with the prospect of imprisonment or house arrest.

“I saw one of my lawyers on television the other day saying, ‘Oh, no, you don’t want to do that,'” to a former president. “I said, you know, don’t beg for anything. That’s just the way it is.”

He will have the option to address the judge at his sentencing hearing, though he is not required to do so, and some legal experts have said it would not be appropriate for him to speak. He did not testify in his own defense at trial, later suggesting it was because he was worried prosecutors would try to trap him in petty lies.

“If he turns around and blames the court, attacks the prosecutors, denounces it as a conspiracy, lies — you should have no doubt: There will be consequences, and there should be consequences,” said Jeremy Saland, a former assistant district attorney in Manhattan.

Additionally, given Trump’s repeated attacks on the prosecutors, the judge, and the court system, and his aggressive trial tactics — flatly denying porn actress Stormy Daniels’ claims of an extramarital affair and later participating in a scheme to silence her — any change in tone at his sentencing would seem disingenuous.

“I don’t see any real benefit in them speaking at sentencing, because even if they said something, they’re saying the exact opposite outside of court and the judge doesn’t know that,” Cohen said.

Of course, there are many other factors that might weigh against a prison sentence—even if Trump’s lack of remorse is obvious. For example, Merchan might conclude that there is a strong societal interest against incarcerating a former and potentially future president.

“Sometimes as a judge and a prosecutor, you have to look at the proverbial scoreboard and say, ‘Enough is enough.’ And that scoreboard is a permanent brand that you’ll see near the cattle in the form of a big fat ‘F’ for felony crime,” Saland said.

“This is far worse than any scarlet letter,” he said. “And no matter what he says, no matter how he spins it, whether or not he has to spend a day in jail, he will always be a convicted criminal. That’s it.”