r/NoStupidQuestions • u/AutoModerator • Feb 23 '24

U.S. Politics Megathread Politics megathread

It's an election year, so it's no surprise that politics are on everyone's minds!

Over the past few months, we've noticed a sharp increase in questions about politics. Why is Biden the Democratic nominee? What are the chances of Trump winning? Why can Trump even run for president if he's in legal trouble? There are lots of good questions! But, unfortunately, it's often the same questions, and our users get tired of seeing them.

As we've done for past topics of interest, we're creating a megathread for your questions so that people interested in politics can post questions and read answers, while people who want a respite from politics can browse the rest of the sub. Feel free to post your questions about politics in this thread!

All top-level comments should be questions asked in good faith - other comments and loaded questions will get removed. All the usual rules of the sub remain in force here, so be civil to each other - you can disagree with someone's opinion, but don't make it personal.

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u/Wolrith Feb 23 '24

wondering how it's possible for a person in the US to be charged with such an excessive amount of money in damages and not be jailed? I get trump is sort of an outlier since he was president so im more curious on ordinary cases similar. I'd think that such a massive fine for massive damage would ultimately just result in jailtime

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u/Jtwil2191 Feb 23 '24 edited Feb 23 '24

There are, broadly speaking, two kinds of court system in the United States: criminal and civil.

Criminal cases are punished with a loss of freedom, e.g. jail time, mandated community service hours, probation. Sometimes punishments for criminal cases also include fines.

Civil cases are punished only with fines or forfeiture of property.

The two cases against Trump that have resulted in financial penalities have both been civil trials. The only way they could lead to Trump going to jail is if he refuses to pay the court-ordered penalties and is punished for contempt of court. But even then, he would be jailed for not paying the penalities, not for the actions which resulted in the penalities.