Former federal Judge Luttig says if Trump is convicted, a federal judge would have 'no choice' but to sentence him to prison

Former federal Judge J. Michael Luttig, who played a critical role in the Jan. 6 committee hearings, joins Yahoo News’ “Skullduggery” podcast to discuss the Jan. 6 House committee criminal referrals against former President Donald Trump. As a former U.S. Court of Appeals judge, Luttig says he’s confident that if Trump is convicted and the conviction is upheld by the Supreme Court, a federal judge would have “no choice” but to sentence him to imprisonment.

Video Transcript

MICHAEL ISIKOFF: Judge, you are, of course, a US Court of Appeals judge for 15 years in the Fourth Circuit, but for the purpose of this podcast, I'm going to anoint you a district court judge, a district court judge who presides over the trial of Donald Trump on one or more of these counts. If he is convicted, based on the evidence we have today, obviously, more would come out during a trial, and there would be defense. But based on the evidence we have today, if he's convicted, do you sentence him to federal prison?

J. MICHAEL LUTTIG: The only reason I hesitate, Michael, on that is that I would want to go back and look at each offense for which the former President would have been convicted, to study the penalties for each, having just talked about the insurrection. That's the one I would want to go back and look most closely.

MICHAEL ISIKOFF: They're all felony counts.

J. MICHAEL LUTTIG: Yes. I believe that were the former President convicted of, let's say, all four of these counts, that a district court judge would sentence the former President to imprisonment. That would be, of course, as you can appreciate, merely the beginning of the very long process, during which the former President would challenge the convictions themselves, the sentencing by the district judge, all the way up through the Court of Appeals, and then just violated [INAUDIBLE].

MICHAEL ISIKOFF: But just to be clear, you cast that as a district court judge, for the purpose of this podcast. I've made you the district court judge. Would you sentence him to prison?

J. MICHAEL LUTTIG: Well, I know, Michael, but I'm the judge, so you don't get to put the question to me [INAUDIBLE].

MICHAEL ISIKOFF: I'm the podcast host.

- He's the Podcast President.

MICHAEL ISIKOFF: I could ask anybody, but go ahead. I'm sorry.

J. MICHAEL LUTTIG: Yes, you can ask any question, and as your guest, I can refuse to answer this. But no, I'm being coy with you when I say that this is a momentous thing already at this point. You're positing now, the conviction years from now of the formal President, of these offenses and asking me as a hypothetical district judge whether I would sentencing him to it.

And what I was trying to say impliedly, was that I don't know that a district judge would have any choice but to sentence the former President to imprisonment under the terms and provisions of these various offenses.