Is the Secret Service Gearing Up to Jail Donald Trump?

Right-wing pundits and MAGA loyalists are losing their minds over something they made up, falsely claiming the Secret Service is knee-deep in preparations to ship their beloved Trump off to jail.

Reality is far less electrifying: CBS reported Tuesday that there’s little clarity on what would happen if Trump is found guilty in criminal court ahead of jury deliberations for his hush-money trial. Within that news item, CBS referred to an unnamed Department of Corrections source  who said that, as part of exploring the full scope of possibilities ahead of a verdict in Trump’s hush-money trial, Secret Service met with “local jail officials”—in this case, likely officials at New York City’s notorious Rikers Island.

It’s not even clear where Trump would be imprisoned, if he is at all. Trump’s 34 felony charges could entail sentences of up to four years in prison—per charge. In New York City, felony convictions with sentences over a year are typically sent to state prisons, not carried out at Rikers Island, which is technically only supposed to hold people whose sentences are around one year, as well as people held pretrial. A freshly convicted Trump could potentially be held temporarily at Rikers before being transferred to a state penitentiary, but this all rests on whether Judge Juan Merchan pursues hard time for Trump at all.

The process is unusual—most convicts don’t come with their own lifetime Secret Service detail—but is altogether routine for the matter at hand and by no means indicates Trump will be sent to the pokey: As CBS notes, Merchan may favor sentencing Trump to house arrest. Merchan previously described jailing Trump as “truly a last resort for me” when Trump repeatedly violated his gag order, taking into consideration the difficulties for Secret Service and jail staff to ensure Trump’s safety behind bars.

Jury deliberations in Trump’s hush-money trial are expected to begin Wednesday. Trump is charged with 34 felony counts of falsifying business records. He has pleaded not guilty.

Former Trump White House attorney Ty Cobb believes that Donald Trump can expect a guilty verdict in his New York hush money-trial.

“I expect a ‘GUILTY’ verdict, but only because the jury instructions as urged by the DA and adopted by the judge, over strenuous and well founded defense objections, virtually require conviction,” Cobb told Semafor Tuesday.

In order to find Trump guilty of felony-level falsification of business documents, the jurors must unanimously agree that he did so in order to further an underlying or separate crime. But last week, against the best efforts of Trump’s legal team, Judge Juan Merchan ruled that the jury will not necessarily need to agree on what those separate or underlying crimes are.

“I reach this legal conclusion because of my long experience as a federal prosecutor and white collar defense lawyer, my reverence for the rule of law, and despite my view that Trump remains the greatest threat to Democracy in our nation’s history,” Cobb said.

The former White House attorney also expects the jury to deliver its verdict by the end of the week—assuming the deliberations follow an old rule of thumb.

“Jury deliberations are always difficult to predict, of course, but one marginally useful rule of thumb is ‘assume one day for each week of trial,’” Cobb explained. “Here even though there were five weeks of evidence, they were short weeks due to the Court not sitting on Wednesdays and to other days or partial days off. So think of it as 4 weeks of evidence. If the jury begins deliberations Tuesday afternoon, expect a verdict no later than Friday afternoon.”

Trump is accused of using his former fixer Michael Cohen to sweep an affair with porn star Stormy Daniels under the rug ahead of the 2016 presidential election. The Republican presidential nominee faces 34 felony charges in this case for allegedly falsifying business records with the intent to further an underlying crime. Trump has pleaded not guilty on all counts.

Donald Trump lobbed a hefty snub to far-right lawmaker Bob Good on Tuesday morning, declaring he’s “BAD FOR VIRGINIA, AND BAD FOR THE USA.” Trump went on to endorse Good’s primary opponent, John McGuire, a former Navy SEAL turned Capitol insurrectionist.

Good has been down bad trying to curry favor with Trump, including traveling all the way to New York to kiss the ring outside Manhattan Criminal Court for Trump’s hush-money trial. During that visit, Good admitted that he and other Republican lawmakers were trying to help Trump evade his gag order.

“That’s why we went up there,” Good said on Fox Business during his visit. “So that we could say the things that this corrupt judge is not allowing him to say.”

Trump’s vengeful dismissal of Good—who chairs the far-right and disturbingly powerful House Freedom Caucus—appear to stem from Good’s early support of Florida Governor Ron DeSantis’s short-lived campaign for president. According to unnamed sources who spoke with CNN in December, Good’s endorsement of DeSantis came because he wanted a candidate who could be president for the next eight consecutive years—but Good still planned to support Trump if he became the nominee, calling him “the best president of my lifetime.”

Bob, the best president of your lifetime hates your guts.

Nikki Haley, former presidential candidate turned Trump endorser, spent Memorial Day not commemorating fallen American servicemembers but visiting Israel as it conducts a brutal massacre in Gaza.

On Monday, Haley posted pictures from a visit to southern Israel, where she met with survivors from Hamas’s attack on October 7. Haley told reporters that the United States “needs to do whatever Israel needs and stop telling them how to fight this war.”

She also traveled to Israel’s northern border with a member of the Israeli Knesset, Danny Dannon, who posted pictures to his own X account on Tuesday with the text “Finish them!” The post also included a picture of Haley signing Israeli artillery shells with the message: “Finish them! America loves Israel!”

Dannon’s post also included, in Hebrew, a message alluding to military strikes against southern Lebanon, referencing two Lebanese cities, according to Google Translate.

“This is what my friend, the former ambassador, Nikki Haley wrote today about a shell during a visit to an artillery post on the northern border,” Dannon wrote.

“The time has come to change the equation—the residents of Tyre and Sidon will evacuate, the residents of the north will return.

“The IDF can win!”

One post from an Israeli peace activist suggested that Haley visited West Bank settlements, which are considered illegal under international law.

Leaving aside the optics of signing bombs when Israel is facing judgment from the International Criminal Court for possible war crimes in Gaza, appearing to endorse military strikes against another country flies in the face of America’s efforts to avoid a wider war in the Middle East. On Monday, an Israeli strike targeting a motorcycle in southern Lebanon landed outside of a hospital, killing the motorcycle driver and a hospital security guard. But more explicitly, Haley is endorsing Israel’s war in Gaza, which has officially killed at least 36,096 people, including 15,000 children, figures that probably don’t include Israel’s latest assault on Rafah.

Renowned actor turned social justice activist Robert De Niro offered choice words outside Manhattan Criminal Court on Tuesday during closing remarks for Trump’s hush-money trial, cutting through the haze of the clown show of Trump supporters to remind everyone that New Yorkers have always hated Donald Trump—with new stakes making that stance a necessity nationwide.

“Donald Trump doesn’t belong in my city,” De Niro said to a gaggle of press cameras. “We New Yorkers used to tolerate him when he was just another grubby real estate hustler masquerading as a big shot. A two-bit playboy lying his way into the tabloids. He’s a clown.”

“We’ve forgotten the lessons of history that showed us other clowns who weren’t taken seriously until they became vicious dictators,” De Niro added. “With Trump we have a second chance, and no one is laughing now. This is the time to stop him by voting him out once and for all.”

The acting titan was tapped by the Biden-Harris campaign to deliver remarks outside the Trump trial, according to Rolling Stone, and was repeatedly interrupted and accosted by Capitol riot participants.

“It is a coward’s violence,” De Niro said of Trump’s incitement of the January 6 Capitol riot. “You think Trump ever threw a punch himself? Or took one? He hid in the White House bunker with protesters outside. He directs the mob to do his dirty work for him.”

De Niro praised Capitol Police officers Michael Fanone and Harry Dunn for their efforts to beat back the mob of rabid Trump supporters, but was interrupted by a far-right activist who participated in the January 6 Capitol riot falsely claiming Fanone and Dunn lied under oath.

“I don’t even know how to deal with you, my friend,” De Niro laughed. Following his remarks, Capitol riot attendees and far-right grifters accosted the legendary actor. “We are trying to be gentlemen in this world,” De Niro shot back. “The Democrats are trying to be gentlemen. You are gangsters. Fuck you.”

The courthouse has been a beacon for political stooges dressed like Trump, far-right fans, and counterprotesters showing up to spoil their P.R. stunts amid Trump’s hush-money trial, which entered into closing remarks on Tuesday with jury deliberations beginning as soon as Wednesday.