By Noreen Marcus, FloridaBulldog.org
While federal judges say some of President Trump’s orders are illegal, Florida state officials seem to take for granted that he alone stands above the law.
At first glance, one particular state statute may look trivial. Every Florida resident with an out-of-state felony conviction, such as Trump’s New York financial crimes conviction, must register with their local sheriff’s office. Violation of Florida Statutes Section 775.13 is a mere second-degree misdemeanor and the $10,000 maximum fine is affordable if you’re wealthy.
But all convicted felons lose important civil rights, among them suffrage and gun ownership. During registration their mugshot is snapped and saved. If the registered felon tries to vote or obtain a firearm, state law enforcement is supposed to respond.
That’s how it works unless your name is Trump and you live in a Palm Beach palazzo called Mar-a-Lago.
Gov. Ron DeSantis prioritizes arresting felons who vote — sometimes even after they’ve completed sentences and can legally reclaim their rights.
Trump is different, though, because it’s highly unlikely he’ll ever serve a criminal sentence. The U.S. Supreme Court all but guaranteed that result by giving him immunity from prosecution for “official acts.”
Last year a jury in Manhattan found that Trump falsified business records and concealed hush money payments to a porn star. He did this 34 times, and was convicted on each count, to prevent a sex scandal from rocking his 2016 campaign.
Trump treated the trial like an inconvenience, attacked prosecutors and Judge Juan Merchan’s daughter on social media, and slept in court during some of the testimony.
A FAILED ‘CONSPIRACY’
“This is a disgrace,” Trump said when jurors returned their guilty verdict on May 30, a year ago this month.
He denounced the verdict as part of a conspiracy to smear him ahead of the November election; if so, it failed miserably. He won.
DeSantis chimed in. “Today’s verdict represents the culmination of a legal process that has been bent to the political will of the actors involved: a leftist prosecutor, a partisan judge and a jury reflective of one of the most liberal enclaves in America — all in an effort to ‘get’ Donald Trump,” the governor posted on X.
DeSantis promised to make sure Trump received clemency if anyone with authority questioned his right to vote for himself in November. No one did.
Maybe Trump quietly tried to regain his civil rights. That couldn’t be confirmed because the Florida Commission on Offender Review keeps applications confidential.
In any event, Trump hasn’t obtained clemency. Last week he wasn’t listed as a successful applicant on the Board of Executive Clemency’s website. DeSantis chairs the board.
Sheriff Ric Bradshaw, who is responsible for enforcing the felon registration law in Palm Beach County, hasn’t taken any public action involving Trump. When Florida Bulldog inquired about this in mid-January, Bradshaw’s media contact Teri Barbera said the office was still waiting for Judge Merchan’s Jan. 10 sentencing order.
The order secures Trump’s legal and historical status as the first ever convicted felon to occupy the White House. Merchan also granted the president-elect an “unconditional discharge” of punishment for his adjudicated crimes.
NO PROBLEM WITH VOTING
Barbera said once the order arrived and was reviewed internally, she’d be able to announce next steps.
Four months later, Florida Bulldog asked her a second time what the sheriff intends to do about Trump’s registration. Barbera did not respond to an email or a phone message over two days.
Trump had no problem voting early in the August 2024 primary. Palm Beach County Supervisor of Elections Wendy Sartory Link greeted him like visiting royalty at the West Palm Beach elections office weeks after the Manhattan criminal trial.
“There’s absolutely nothing in the Constitution or in state law that would enable him to vote,” Philip Padovano, a Tallahassee appellate lawyer and retired judge, said at the time. “I just think we should treat him like everybody else.”
But Link expressed no concern about Trump voting. She told Florida Bulldog state election officials didn’t refer Trump’s case to her office, perhaps because they found the registration law inapplicable to his situation.
With a referral in hand, Link said, she would have followed standard procedure and possibly purged Trump’s name from the voting rolls.
Unless and until he finally registers his felony conviction in Palm Beach County, Trump’s only mugshot is a 2023 booking photo from his Georgia election interference case. Delays and his election derailed that case and two others brought by Justice Department special counsel Jack Smith – one for keeping national security documents at Mar-a-Lago, the other for his conduct culminating in the Jan. 6, 2021 Capitol riot.
A framed copy of the Georgia mugshot hangs in a hallway outside the Oval Office today. Trump has been known to show it off to White House visitors with defiant pride.
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