Former US presidents are entitled to security for the rest of their lives, meaning staff will have to accompany him if he is jailed.
Secret Service chiefs are working on plans for how their agents will continue to protect Donald Trump if he is imprisoned. By law, former US presidents are entitled to round-the-clock security for the rest of their lives, meaning security staff will have to accompany Trump if he is incarcerated. Falsification of business records does not usually lead to a prison sentence. Many legal experts argue home confinement or probation is the more likely outcome.
But the case against the Trump is unique and his campaign of attacks against Judge Juan Merchan, who will decide his sentence on July 11, could backfire. Federal agents had until Thursday avoided discussing what would happen if Trump was handed a lengthy prison sentence, according to AT Smith, former deputy director of the US Secret Service. “They didn’t want to unfairly telegraph any information or make it look as if a plan was in place,” Mr Smith, a former protection officer for Bill Clinton, said “Having said that, they will obviously probably now have some discussions about what if.”
While the concept is completely novel to all those involved, Mr Smith said the Secret Service would not allow the “protective mission to in any way be flawed”. “They’ll rise to the occasion, they will work with the counterparts that may become necessary depending upon the judge’s decision in order to accomplish their mission, which is the protection of the former president.” Mr Smith said some preliminary discussions took place when it looked as though Trump may be given a short prison sentence for repeatedly violating his gag order. “I do know that there were several options discussed just in case,” he said.
One of the options, he said, would have been to send the former president to the “VIP” west wing of Rikers Island prison in the Bronx. But the notorious prison only accommodates inmates who are sentenced for up to one year, and Trump could be given a four-year prison term for his 34 convictions of falsifying business records. Another option would have been to keep Trump on the medical ward at Bellevue Hospital on the ninth floor, where there is a detention facility.
Sarena Townsend, the former head of internal affairs at Rikers Island, said Trump would not be in a “typical dorm cell situation” but would be held in a separate area, and for Trump to exercise outside, the prison would likely need to shut down the yard to other inmates and “Secret Service would be surrounding him”. However, she said the prison would need to “straddle the line” to ensure they did not appear to prioritise Trump “to the detriment of other detainees”.
Rawr
Article URL : https://www.telegraph.co.uk/us/politics/2024/05/31/trump-protected-in-prison-by-secret-service-agents/