Following Trump’s arraignment on Apr. 4 in a Manhattan courtroom, misleading predictions on social media said Trump could face “30+ years” or “136 years” in prison if found guilty. FactCheck.org spoke with legal experts about these claims, the state penal code, and the likelihood of receiving jail time for Class E non-violent felonies. CERL’s Prof. Claire Finkelstein was among the experts consulted.

Claire Finkelstein is the Algernon Biddle Professor of Law and Professor of Philosophy at the University of Pennsylvania. She is founder and faculty director of the Center for Ethics and the Rule of Law (CERL), a non-partisan interdisciplinary institute affiliated with the University of Pennsylvania’s Annenberg Public Policy Center (APPC). She is a distinguished research fellow at APPC and a senior fellow at the Foreign Policy Research Institute (FPRI). Her current research addresses national security law and policy, democratic governance, and professional ethics. Read her bio here.