Trump’s legal woes to vanish following election
Donald Trump’s criminal cases are expected to disappear with his imminent return to the White House.
The Republican president-elect had faced four separate prosecutions over his alleged efforts to overturn the 2020 election, mishandling of classified documents and hush money payments to a porn star.
He was found guilty on all 34 counts of falsifying business records in the hush money case in New York earlier this year, the first former US president to become a convicted felon.
Trump, 78, was scheduled to be sentenced in the New York case later this month. The penalties for the conviction range from four years in prison to house arrest or a fine.
However, the presiding judge, Juan Merchan, is considering the possibility of dismissing the case and has given himself a deadline of Nov 12 to make a decision.
If Mr Merchan were to press ahead with the case, Trump’s lawyers have indicated they would seek a delay.
Sentencing a president-elect ahead of Inauguration Day would be unprecedented in US history, and legal experts believe a delay would be swiftly granted pending an appeal.
Meanwhile, officials at the US Department of Justice (DoJ) spent Wednesday reviewing how to wind down the two federal cases against Trump.
They have been spearheaded by Jack Smith, the independent special counsel who has been doggedly pursuing Trump through the courts for the last two years.
Sources within the DoJ said the cases would be shuttered because of the department’s long-standing policy against prosecuting a sitting president.
Trump had already threatened to fire Mr Smith if he regained the White House, telling a radio host last month he would sack the special counsel “within two seconds” of being sworn in as the 47th US president.
One of the cases was brought by Mr Smith in Washington and centred on Trump’s alleged attempts to overturn his 2020 election defeat.
The second was filed in southern Florida over the former president’s alleged retention of classified documents after leaving office.
Both had faced significant delays after Trump appealed to the US Supreme Court, which partly agreed with his claim that he had enjoyed broad immunity while president.
As president, Trump will have less control over the New York hush money case or an election interference case in Georgia, given both are brought by state prosecutors.
But his legal team has already said they will argue that a president should not face the burden of criminal prosecution while in office.
His lawyers and legal analysts are confident that his return to the White House makes it unlikely he will face legal consequences in either case during his term in office.
The case could still proceed against the other co-defendants, who include Trump’s former personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani and White House chief of staff Mark Meadows.
Trump had pleaded not guilty to all charges and cast the prosecutions as politically motivated.
“The American people have heard these Democrat prosecutors’ cases against President Trump and they’re still going to elect him anyway,” said Mike Davis, the founder of the Article III Project, a conservative legal advocacy group.