He would need the Supreme Court to twist the law to let him go free. They could possibly be corrupt enough, but these Supreme Court judges will be on the bench long after Trump is dead.
I feel their future conservative causes will be worth more to them than Trump ever could be.
Conservatives and the Republican party's goal since the 1930s has been to set up a fascist dictatorship. If they believe they can crystallize it around Trump. And then in a few years cast him aside. They will do it in a heartbeat. They care about how they can use and enable Trump for their use.
Yeah, they have no fealty to Trump and no incentive to thrust their reputation further into the trash by helping him. I would say 2% chance SCOTUS helps him, and that's only because I try to avoid speaking in absolutes.
This has been my perception as well. I think overturning a conviction in the short term would have the highly probable rubber-band effect of limiting their power in the long term. Since many of them will likely be on the bench long after Trump is dead and gone, I see zero upside for them in risking this kind of action. If there is one thing history has taught me it is that no governmental body is coming to your rescue if doing so would correlate to a reduction in their own authority or power.
And if some other Republican signals that they'd pardon him if they won, they likely won't. Because Trump would run against that president in the next election cycle.
Correct me if I'm wrong but as another method, I believe he just needs one fuckstick on each jury to force a mistrial which would push everything past the election, feed into the "it's all political" narrative, and hand him what will become the emperor's throne. And there is currently no shortage of fucksticks.
We don't know if a president can pardon themselves. Has never been done. Trump would surely try, though.
The fact that we're even talking about this is completely embarrassing. I'm not sure any other country can really take this country's democracy serious anymore.