Fox’s Ari Fleischer Predicts Judge Merchan Will Sentence Trump to Prison If He Doesn’t Throw Out Guilty Ruling: ‘It Will Backfire’

Fox News contributor Ari Fleischer predicted that Judge Juan Merchan will sentence Donald Trump to prison if he does not throw out his guilty ruling.

Back in May, the former president was unanimously convicted by a Manhattan jury on all 34 counts of falsifying business records to conceal payments made to adult film actress Stormy Daniels .

However, Merchan delayed Trump’s sentencing until September as he decides whether the Supreme Court’s presidential immunity decision requires throwing out the GOP nominee’s guilty verdict.

Fleischer joined Dagen McDowell for an interview on The Faulkner Focus on Friday morning where he predicted that if Merchan does not dismiss the guilty charges then Trump should prepare to face time in prison.

MCDOWELL: The three other criminal cases against former President Trump are all stalled right now, with almost no chance of significant progress before the election. All right. How do you see this playing out with Judge Merchan?

FLEISCHER: Yeah. And it’s fascinating because I think a lot of Americans thought that this had come and gone. That these legal cases peaked in the summer. And now we’re going to go back to what American democracy is supposed to be, which is two candidates duking it out and leaving it to the people. And all of a sudden now we’re reminded. Oh, yeah, a possible sentence. I’ve always braced myself for President Trump getting sentenced to prison. I’ve always thought that’s what Judge Merchan was going to do, and people should not rule that out. Now, whether he’ll do it, given the Supreme Court case, that’s the big if here. But if he has his way and if he disregards a Supreme Court ruling, he’s going to sentence Donald Trump to prison. I don’t think there’s any doubt about that. And it will backfire. This is where the Democrats have been wrong all year, ever since they started to indict him a couple of years ago. They thought this would get rid of Donald Trump, and it only made him stronger. That’s the political backfire that results from when one party interferes with an election by trying to use legal means to get the other guy off the ballot. You don’t do that at the presidential level. You leave it up to the people. That’s where this needs to be settled in a free and fair election this November. But I’m braced there, and I don’t know what Judge Merchan will do, but I do know who he is, and he wants to put Donald Trump at prison.

Watch the clip above via Fox News .