Donald Trump’s probation officer may have just busted him for felony gun possession
Donald Trump met with his probation officer this week for the purpose of allowing the officer to put together a sentencing recommendation for Judge Juan Merchan. That meeting is still private for now. But one key detail has leaked out that could get Trump in serious legal trouble.
When Trump was initially charged in New York, his gun license was suspended, and he was supposed to surrender all of his registered guns. But Trump apparently never turned over one of them, and so the probation officer asked him about it during their meeting. Trump claimed that the gun is in Florida. But according to CNN, there’s no record of Trump having surrendered that gun. Why does this matter?
The minute Trump was convicted of a felony in New York, it became a felony for him to possess a gun. Because he failed to turn over one of his guns back when he was supposed to, it suggests he’s still in possession of it now. If it’s at Mar-a-Lago, for instance, then he’s considered to be in possession of it because it’s in his home.
So now Trump is up against it, legally speaking. If New York determines that the gun is still in Trump’s possession post-conviction, then it can bring additional felony charges against him. This felony gun possession can also be cited as a basis for a harsher sentence in his July 11th hearing. And as legal expert Ryan Goodman has pointed out, Trump’s post-conviction possession of a gun can be used as a basis for the revocation of his bail in his other three ongoing criminal trials.
We’ll have to wait a minute to see how this all plays out. The gun will have to be hunted down. And it’ll have to be established that it was indeed still in Trump’s possession after he wasn’t allowed to have it.
But it’s important to keep in mind that we’re way past the point where Trump can “get away” with something like this. He’s a convicted felon awaiting sentencing. And if Trump or his people try to do something stupid like tossing the gun, that’ll just create even more legal trouble for them. Yes, we’re at the point where we’re talking about the possibility of a major party nominee for President of the United States tossing his gun before his felony sentencing hearing. Congratulations, Republicans!
