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    • How Trump’s victory could delay (or erase) his legal problems
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    How Trump’s victory could delay (or erase) his legal problems

    Sakege Posted on

    A Trump-appointed attorney general could drop the two federal cases, and legal experts say the state cases in New York and Georgia would likely have to wait until after the end of his term.

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    • Trump’s sentencing in the New York hush money case is set for Nov. 26, but experts say the hearing or punishment will likely be postponed until he completes his term.
    • A provision of the Constitution called the supremacy clause likely protects Trump from state charges in Georgia, according to his lawyers and some legal experts.

    In almost an instant, the former president donald trumpIsrael’s criminal (mis)fortunes have been transformed.

    The next president of the United States still technically faces a criminal sentence in his New York hush money case on November 26, but Trump’s victory on Tuesday night means that Judge Juan Merchán faces the unprecedented question of whether it is possible sentencing an elected president who is preparing for office.

    Even if the ruling goes forward, legal experts widely agree that a ruling that significantly interferes with the presidency is out of the question. Before Tuesday, Trump was facing a possible prison sentence – although probation was also an option.

    “Right now, convictions in New York obviously don’t matter,” said Asha Rangappa, a lawyer and former FBI special agent who is now vice dean of Yale University’s Jackson School of Global Affairs. published in X.

    And that’s just the case with Trump in New York. His return to the White House also means Trump can tell the Justice Department to drop his two federal criminal indictments, one for his efforts to overturn the 2020 election and the other for his hoarding of classified documents.

    “Now that Trump won, his criminal problems go away,” said Neama Rahmani, a former federal prosecutor who is now president of West Coast Trial Lawyers. “It is well established that a sitting president cannot be prosecuted, so the election fraud case in D.C. District Court will be dismissed and the Justice Department will abandon its appeal from the Eleventh Circuit over the dismissal of the classified documents case “.

    Trump himself has said he could shut down the prosecutor for his federal cases, Justice Department special counsel Jack Smith. “It’s very easy: I would fire him in two seconds.” Trump told radio host Hugh Hewitt on October 24.

    Finally, there is the Georgia indictment accusing Trump of interference in the 2020 election. That would also raise legal questions about whether a state criminal case can move forward if he interferes with the presidency.

    “Trump, like any criminal defendant, has the right to a speedy trial, so staying or suspending cases for four years until he leaves office would also not be an option,” Rahmani said of the Georgia case.

    But the status of the state cases (the sentencing in New York and the trial in Georgia) is uncertain.

    “I think we’re in uncharted territory,” Alexander Reiner, a professor at Cardozo Law School, said of how state courts would handle a defendant residing in the White House.

    Here’s where Trump’s pending criminal cases are and where they go from here:

    Sentencing looms in New York hush money case

    Trump is scheduled to be sentenced on Nov. 26 after a jury found him guilty of 34 counts of falsifying business records to cover up hush payments made to stormy pornstar daniels before the 2016 election. However, his lawyers could soon argue that moving forward would violate the Constitution by illegally interfering with his responsibilities as president-elect, and later as president.

    The Justice Department made a similar argument in a 2000 note that prosecuting a sitting president “would unduly interfere with the ability of the executive branch to perform the functions assigned to it by the constitution.”

    The Department’s policy is not binding on any state prosecutor or court. However, prosecutors would likely avoid encroaching on the powers of the federal government, which has supremacy under the Constitution.

    “There’s a sense that they would follow the feds’ lead and therefore delay … sentencing in the New York case until the end of his presidency,” said Robert Weisberg, a Stanford law professor who teaches law and criminal proceedings. he told USA TODAY.

    The question of immunity

    Becoming president is not Trump’s only argument to avoid his court appearance on November 26.

    Judge Merchan is scheduled to rule on November 12 whether Trump’s criminal sentence imposed in May can stand in the wake of the of the Supreme Court later presidential immunity ruling prohibit certain evidence of a president’s official acts from being used to prosecute him.

    Triumph maintains that his conviction – and even his accusation – must be discarded because some evidence contradicts the immunity ruling.

    If Merchan rules that Trump’s conviction should stand and the sentencing should go forward two weeks later, the former president could still appeal the decision and try to have a higher court delay the sentencing until the appeal is resolved.

    Merchan could sentence the real estate magnate to nothing at allto several years in prisonor something in between. Trump would likely appeal any prison sentence, arguing that it amounts to unconstitutional interference with the presidency.

    Trump could cause the Justice Department to drop federal cases

    Trump has said he would fire U.S. Attorney Smith and possibly even jail him.

    “I wouldn’t stay with him” Trump told Breitbart News in July 2023. “Jack Smith? Why would I keep it? “He’s upset.”

    The next day, Trump said in a post on Truth Social that Smith should be in jail.

    “They should jail deranged Jack Smith and his tax thugs, while Meritless Garland and Trump hate Lisa Monaco.” Trump said in a post on Truth Social in July 2023, referring to Attorney General Merrick Garland and Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco. “They have totally weaponized the Department of Justice.”

    Garland has repeatedly denied Trump’s prosecutions They were politically motivated. “Justice Department prosecutors are nonpartisan,” he said. “They do not allow partisan considerations to play any role in their determinations.”

    Trump says he could forgive himself

    Article 2 of the Constitution states that the president “shall have power to grant pardons and pardons for offenses against the United States, except in cases of impeachment.”

    Trump has said he could pardon himself, but that remains a matter of legal debate.

    “As numerous jurists have stated, I have the absolute right to FORGIVE myself.” Trump said in a 2018 post on Xformerly known as Twitter.

    Several law professors say A president could forgive himself, while others disagree.

    “President Trump clearly can pardon anyone, including himself, subject to the Mueller investigation,” John Yoo, a law professor at the University of California at Berkeley and former deputy attorney general during the George W. administration, wrote in 2017. . Bush, during Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election.

    But four days before Richard Nixon resigned in 1974, Mary Lawton, acting deputy attorney general, wrote that “under the fundamental rule that no one can be a judge in his own case“A president could not forgive himself.”

    What about Trump’s federal election charges?

    U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan is weighing whether to dismiss some or all of the charges against Trump, accusing him of conspiring to steal the 2020 election and obstruct the counting of Electoral College votes.

    Chutkan will decide based on the Supreme Court’s ruling in July that Trump is presumptively immune from charges for official acts but vulnerable to charges for private acts. His decision could be appealed again to the Supreme Court.

    Trump is charged with conspiracy to overturn the 2020 election and obstruction of Congress for urging state lawmakers to overturn election results and select “fake” Republican presidential electors, making false claims of widespread voter fraud, and sending a mob of supporters to the Capitol. in January. January 6, 2021, where they rioted.

    Smith has argued that Trump was acting for your private benefit rather than the public duty of holding office. But Trump, who has pleaded not guilty, maintains that the entire case should be dismissed based on presidential immunity.

    Classified Documents Case Already Dismissed, But Appeal Could Be Dropped

    The dismissal of another federal case, which accuses Trump of accumulating classified documents at his Mar-a-Lago estate after leaving the White House, is under appeal.

    US District Judge Aileen Cannon dismissed the charges by ruling that Smith’s appointment was illegitimate.

    The charges against Trump with illegal retention of more than 100 national security documents, containing some of the country’s best-kept secrets, for a year and a half after leaving the White House.

    Smith has asked the 11th The U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Atlanta will overturn Cannon’s decision.

    Trump, who has pleaded not guilty, has repeatedly argued that he could take records with him after leaving the White House, despite the Presidential Records Act giving ownership to the National Archives and Records Administration. Trump also argues that he had declassified the records, despite the lack of documentation for his claim.

    Georgia Charges Stand Even If Federal Cases Are Dismissed

    Georgia election extortion charges against Trump could persist even if federal charges are dropped.

    Trump is charged with conspiracy for urging state lawmakers to replace the state’s presidential electors with Republicans despite Democratic President Joe Biden’s victory in Georgia in 2020. Trump is also accused of asking a public official to violate his or her oath of office. into office by asking Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger to “find” him enough votes to win.

    Trump has argued that the substitute electors were recruited in case he won legal challenges and that his call urging Raffensperger to investigate voter fraud was “perfect.” He pleaded not guilty.

    The Georgia Court of Appeals is scheduled to hear arguments on December 5 on Whether Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis Should Be Removed from the prosecution due to her romantic relationship with another prosecutor.

    Trump’s lawyer, Stege Sadow, cited a provision of the Constitution called the supremacy clause that makes federal law superior to state law, and he argued that the trial in Georgia should be suspended until he completes his term as president.

    “I believe that under the supremacy clause and his duties as president of the United States, this trial could not take place until after he left office,” Sadow said. told Fulton County Superior Judge Scott McAfee in December.

    Sakege
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