Donald Trump’s victory in the US presidential election on Wednesday will essentially end the criminal cases against him, at least for his four years in the White House.
Trump was the first former US president to face criminal charges, and for most of this year he has faced four simultaneous trials, over allegations ranging from his attempt to cover up hush-money payments to porn star Stormy Daniels during his 2016 campaign to his attempts to cancel his 2020 campaign. Election Defeat . A New York jury convicted him in May of falsifying business records linked to Daniels’ payment, making him the first former US president to be convicted of a felony.
Trump, a Republican, said in an interview on October 24 that he would fire US special counsel Jack Smith — who led federal prosecutions over his attempts to overturn his election defeat and his retention of secret documents after leaving office — “within two seconds” of being sworn in.
Trump has pleaded not guilty to all charges and described the trials as politically motivated.
“The American people have heard the Democratic plaintiffs’ cases against President Trump, and they still would have elected him anyway,” said Mike Davis, founder of the Article III Project, a conservative legal advocacy group.
While Trump as president will have the power to fire Smith and close the federal cases against him, he will not have the same control over New York’s secret money case or Georgia’s prosecution of him for trying to overturn his 2020 loss in that state. But his unique role as president makes it unlikely that he will face legal consequences either way during his term.
“He has been rightly accused of crimes within our system,” said Christy Parker, special counsel at Protect Democracy, an advocacy organization dedicated to countering what it calls authoritarian threats to the United States. That doesn’t mean it was the right thing.
Another trial date is scheduled to be set before he is sworn in on January 20, although legal experts have said it is unlikely to go ahead.
In New York, Trump’s lawyers are expected to ask Judge Juan Merchan to postpone his sentencing, currently scheduled for November 26 – in which he could face up to four years in prison. Sentencing a president-elect before Inauguration Day would be unprecedented in US history, and legal experts expect the hearing to be postponed.
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Merchan has already twice postponed Trump’s sentencing, which was initially scheduled for July 11, in part because of a U.S. Supreme Court ruling in July that found presidents enjoy broad immunity from prosecution for their official actions. Trump says the case should be dismissed based on the ruling, which prosecutors dispute.
Trump has vowed to appeal his conviction once he is sentenced. Separately, his lawyers asked the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals to move the case to federal court. Such a move, if successful, could create new legal hurdles to the case.
Trump faces four charges in a federal court in Washington accusing him of spreading false allegations of election fraud to try to prevent the collection and certification of votes after the 2020 elections, which Trump lost to Democrat Joe Biden.
Smith also accused Trump of illegally retaining classified documents after his first term ended in 2021 and obstructing US government efforts to recover records.
Florida-based U.S. District Judge Eileen Cannon, whom Trump nominated to the court, dismissed all charges in July after finding that Smith was improperly appointed to the position and did not have the authority to bring the case.
Smith’s team is appealing the ruling, but Trump’s pledge to fire Smith once he takes office likely signals the end of the case.
Extortion case in Georgia
Prosecutors in Fulton County, Georgia, last year used state racketeering laws — developed to fight organized crime — to charge Trump in an alleged plot to reverse his defeat in the 2020 election battleground state.
Trump will not be able to finish the trial, but his lawyer has already said in court that he will seek to temporarily stop any activity related to Trump based on the argument that the president should not face the burden of criminal prosecution while in office.
Trump and eight of the 14 other defendants in the case are asking the Georgia Court of Appeals to disqualify the lead prosecutor, Fulton County District Attorney Fanny Willis, over alleged misconduct stemming from a romantic relationship she had with a former deputy. Oral arguments are scheduled for December 5.
If these efforts fail, it will be possible to pursue the case against other defendants, including Trump’s former personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani and White House chief of staff Mark Meadows. But legal experts expect that the case against Trump will not advance while he remains in the White House.
