GITMO? NAH, I LIKE DEATH!
PRESIDENT TRUMP walked back his suggestion that New York terror suspect Sayfullo Saipov should be sent to Guantanamo Bay on Thursday — but continued calling for him to get the death penalty.
“Would love to send the NYC terrorist to Guantanamo but statistically that process takes much longer than going through the Federal system . . . There is also something appropriate about keeping him in the home of the horrible crime he committed. Should move fast. DEATH PENALTY!”
Trump on Wednesday called Saipov an “animal,” suggesting he should be held at the prison in Cuba among those taken captive during the war on terror.
Experts noted, however, that courts at Guantanamo are often drawnout affairs that take years.
Saipov — who bragged about speeding a rented Home Depot truck through a lower Manhattan bike lane, killing eight and injuring 13 — was formally charged Wednesday with material support to a terrorist organization and violence and destruction of a motor vehicle.
Manhattan U.S. Attorney Joon Kim wouldn’t say if prosecutors would seek the death penalty.
National security adviser H.R. McMaster later tried to explain Trump’s tweets.
“What the President wants is to secure the American people from this threat and from mass murders like this, murders like this,” he told reporters at a White House briefing. “And so what he has asked is for options to take a look, to assess.”
Trump’s tough talk, however, could have legal ramifications.
Rep. Pete King said he understood “as a human being, from his gut, the President felt this way” about calling for the death penalty.
But, the Long Island Republican noted, President Richard Nixon’s reference to Charles Manson as a murderer nearly derailed the cult leader’s trial.
“Presidents have to realize whatever they say can be used by the defense counsel to either cause a mistrial or have the trial delayed,” King said.
Mayor de Blasio also disagreed with Trump’s tweet — but for a different reason.
“I’m not someone who believes in the death penalty in general, I just don’t,” de Blasio told reporters, less than a block from where Saipov’s truck smashed into a school bus. “I believe this is an individual who should rot in prison for the rest of his life.”
Trump’s comments aren’t likely to impact the case against Sai- pov in a major way, nor prevent prosecutors from seeking the death penalty, said James Jacobs, a professor at NYU Law School.
“It’s inappropriate to do that,” he told the Daily News of Trump’s tweets. “But I don’t think it will impact the case.”
Jacobs pointed to President George H.W. Bush’s public statements after the police officers in the Rodney King beating were acquitted. The 41st President had the Justice Department open its own investigation, he noted, which also didn’t end in a conviction.
“I think it would be extraordinary, unimaginable really for a court to say he can’t be prosecuted because the President said he’s guilty,” Jacobs said. “I don’t think that’s in the cards.”