Former President Donald Trump seems to be “on track” to face a criminal conviction this year, according to former federal prosecutor and legal analyst Glenn Kirschner on Saturday.
In the first of the four criminal indictments leveled against him last year, Trump is facing 34 charges related to allegations that he falsified business records to conceal “hush money” payments to adult film star Stormy Daniels in exchange for her not speaking before the 2016 presidential election about an affair the two allegedly had in 2006.
Trump has pleaded not guilty to the charges and denies that an affair took place. The grand jury indictment came as the result of an investigation by Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg. Despite that case being viewed by many experts as the least consequential and damning of Trump’s criminal cases, it now appears that it will be the first one to go to trial, with a start currently set for Monday, April 15.
On Saturday, Kirschner, a former assistant U.S. attorney and frequent critic of the former president, said in a YouTube video that 2024 will be the year that Trump will be convicted on at least some of his alleged crimes, after 2023 was the year of his various indictments.
Seth Wenig – Pool/AFP via Getty Images
“In 2023 in my videos, I often said 2024 will be the year of the Trump trials and the Trump convictions, and I still believe that to be true,” Kirschner said. “I think that we are on track to have Donald Trump convicted of just some of the crimes he committed this year, 2024.”
He further predicted that Trump will be serving time in prison by 2025.
Newsweek reached out to Trump’s office via email on Saturday afternoon for comment.
Elsewhere in his video, Kirschner laid out why he believes the Manhattan case will go to trial on its current date of April 15, despite the many delays that the other cases involving him have endured. For one, he said that there is no longer any point about the case that Trump’s team could appeal that would result in an appeals court putting a halt to the proceedings.
Another reason he put forward was the judge overseeing the Manhattan case, Judge Juan Merchan, whom he hailed as “legitimate” and “serious,” and “determined” to get the case to trial. This he contrasted to Judge Aileen Cannon, who is overseeing the federal criminal case against Trump over allegations that he mishandled classified documents at his Mar-a-Lago resort residence in Florida. Cannon, a Trump-appointee, has been accused by many experts of making questionable rulings in the case that favor the former president’s goals. This has included granting delays in the planned trial date and granting the request of Trump’s legal team for more classified information to be unredacted in the files provided to them for discovery.
Uncommon Knowledge
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Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.