Donald Trump has likely avoided looking into a prison cell thanks to his successful bid for re-election.

The newly elected president was set to be sentenced on November 26 after a New York jury found him guilty of falsifying corporate records to cover up a sex scandal involving former adult film star Stormy Daniels.

The 34 felony charges carried a possible prison sentence of up to four years, and under normal circumstances Trump would face a very real chance of prison time, an investigator said. New York Times analysis of comparable cases.

Most defendants who are convicted but do not receive prison time agree to plea bargains. Trump, on the other hand, was such an openly hostile defendant that he was punished by the court. Convicted felons are usually housed on Rikers Island.

But Trump’s lawyers successfully requested a series of delays in the case, and the judge agreed to delay sentencing until after Election Day. Team Trump has also argued that the case should be dismissed entirely on the basis of presidential immunity, or taken to federal court.

Now that Trump has defeated Kamala Harris, it’s not even clear whether prosecutors will seek prison time against a new president. No one has ever had to deal with Secret Service protection at Rikers before.

But if prosecutors ask for a stiff sentence, Trump’s lawyers are likely to ask for an indefinite stay of sentence — and they’ll probably get it, some experts say.

Constitutional questions about whether a state judge can convict a newly elected president could stall the case for years, and at the very least, Trump’s lawyers will argue he cannot be convicted until he completes his second presidential term, experts told CNN .

That would keep him a free man at least until January 2029. By then he will be 82 years old and can apply for leniency based on his age and lack of prior criminal record.

Just a friendly old man with no prior convictions, trying to spend his last days on the golf course he loves.

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