Former president, potential prisoner?

If Trump goes to jail for falsifying criminal records, what will that mean for his VIP protections?

- ALLAN WOODS

It's a cruel irony the likes of which Donald Trump's many opponents will appreciate.

After the "Lock her up" attacks that pushed him past Hillary Clinton in the 2016 US. presidential election, it's the former president who finds himself staring down the barrel of a criminal conviction on charges of falsifying criminal records to cover up hush-money payments to adult film star Stormy Daniels.

The verdict is ultimately in the hands of the jury, which will begin deliberations as early as Tuesday. Sentencing if Trump is found guilty will be up to New York State Supreme Court Judge Juan Merchan, who can decide to send Trump to jail or let him off with some lesser penalty, like a fine.

But it's the first alternative-jailthat we're focused on here and the host of complicated considerations for Trump's Secret Service bodyguards and corrections officials in the State of New York who must decide how best to lock Trump up, if it comes down to that.

If we're in the realm of speculation, it's because no one has ever before had to work through the modalities of sending a former - and potentially future American president to prison.

That it happens in the final months of a US. presidential election pitting Trump against the incumbent, Joe Biden, is just another in the many wrinkles in America's fine political mess.

Officials have been unwilling to comment on many of the pressing questions around how one of America's most Very Important of Peoples might be dealt with in jail. But there were, reportedly a series of urgent meetings last month to discuss the possibility when Trump was threatened with jail time for contempt of court during his criminal trial.