I am learning all manner of arcane things about how the criminal justice system works, thanks to the trial and conviction of serial sex abuser and convicted felon Donald Trump (SSACFT). For example, I used to wonder why there would be a long gap between the verdict and the sentencing. It turns out that this is because even though it is the judge who decides what the sentence should be, there is a process that leads up to it and one requirement is that the convicted felon first meet with a probation officer who will conduct an examination and give the judge a report.

Moments after those 34 “guilties” rolled in on Thursday — making him the first former president convicted of a felony — Donald Trump was handed two copies of a standard New York City Department of Probation form.
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Conducted by a city probation officer, these brief interviews are then memorialized in a “pre-sentencing report” — also known as a “probation report” — that both sides and the judge see shortly before the sentencing.

Pre-sentencing reports include input from prosecutors and make a recommendation to the judge for what punishment — including jail, probation, fines, and community service — would be appropriate.
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Trump’s lawyers can simply call probation on the phone to schedule the interview, said Diana Florence, who served for 30 years as a white-collar crime prosecutor in the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office.

“I think a privilege of being a former president is that you can get any appointment you want,” said Florence, now in private practice.

But the interview itself cannot be done over the phone, said Florence and other attorneys who spoke to BI. “One thousand percent, it has to happen in person, just like the trial and sentencing has to be done in person,” she said.

Unless it doesn’t happen at all.

“I’ve had many clients just refuse to be interviewed,” said veteran Manhattan defense lawyer Ron Kuby.
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“If he wants to show remorse, then certainly the probation report is a good place to start doing that,” he added. “But Donald Trump has not shown remorse and insists everybody else are the wrongdoers.”

Still, by not cooperating, Trump would lose his chance to plead his case for leniency and run the very high risk of angering the judge.
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If he does submit to a pre-sentencing interview in the next month or so, Trump would not have an attorney with him as he sits face-to-face with a probation officer, said Arnold Levine, a longtime public defender with the Legal Aid Society of New York’s Homicide Defense Task Force.
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It’s not a long interview, said Levine and others. During the first part of the interview, Trump would be asked for standard, so-called “pedigree” information — name, aliases, address, profession, marital status, that kind of thing.

He’d also be asked if he has any health, substance abuse, or domestic violence issues and whether he owns a firearm.

During the rest of the interview, Trump would be offered the chance to speak about his conviction and make a plea for leniency.

“It’s perfectly fine to say the matter is on appeal, and I maintain my innocence,” Florence said. “What’s not fine is to say the judge is corrupt and the jury is corrupt, and the witnesses must die,” she joked.

The probation officer has a tough task with someone like SSACFT

Will Donald Trump avoid prison? It may depend partly on his ability to convince a probation officer that he would be “amenable to supervision.”

That’s according to Martin Horn, a former commissioner of both the New York City Department of Probation and the city’s Department of Correction, who spoke to POLITICO Magazine about the process Trump is about to undergo as he tries to stay out of the slammer.

In a typical case, a convict will be interviewed by a probation officer in the days after the verdict and be given the opportunity to accept responsibility and present mitigating factors that could reduce any sentence. That is going to be difficult for a man who has constantly railed against the case against him — not to mention the very judge who will decide the sentence.

Horn, who is a professor emeritus at John Jay College of Criminal Justice, said a probation officer will have to answer: “Is this individual going to accept that he has been justly convicted and accept the strictures and restrictions and requirements of a probation sentence?”

SSACFT has pushed the legal system to the limits by his attacks on the judge and other court personnel. Is he likely, in the presence of a mere probation officer, to show any contrition let alone “accept that he has been justly convicted and accept the strictures and restrictions and requirements of a probation sentence”. Hardly. And yet, doing so seems to be what is required to avoid prison. SSACFT may think that the judge will not dare sentence him to prison and thus he can defy the probation officer.

I do not envy the probation officer or the judge. Even if they think he deserves prison time because of his unrepentant behavior and relentless attacks of the justice system, there are some real problems with sending him to prison. He still has secret service protection and how to accommodate them will be a problem.

On the other hand, sentencing him to home imprisonment alone seems hardly a punishment given the kind of luxury homes SSACFT has. Given these strictures, the judge might opt for probation along with community service.