(AFP) – Donald Trump’s election victory not only catapults him back to the White House but grants him a reprieve from looming court battles and soaring legal bills. Special Counsel Jack Smith is already in talks with Justice Department officials about winding down the two federal cases filed against the former president, NBC News and CNN reported Wednesday, just hours after Trump’s win. They said the move was being taken in light of the long-standing Justice Department policy that a sitting US president cannot be indicted or criminally prosecuted.
Trump pledged during the election campaign against Vice President Kamala Harris to fire Smith “within two seconds” of taking office. A US president does not have the authority to dismiss a special counsel, but Trump could name an attorney general who could do so. He could also have simply ordered the Justice Department to drop the charges. Smith, who was appointed by Merrick Garland, President Joe Biden’s attorney general, brought two cases against Trump — for conspiring to overturn the results of the 2020 election and for mishandling top secret documents after leaving the White House.
The election interference case is ongoing in Washington but no trial date has been set, and it has been complicated by the Supreme Court ruling in July that a former president has broad immunity from criminal prosecution. Trump is accused of conspiracy to defraud the United States and conspiracy to obstruct an official proceeding — the session of Congress called to certify the Biden win, which was violently attacked on January 6, 2021, by a mob of his supporters. The Republican is also accused of seeking to disenfranchise US voters with his false claims that he won the 2020 election. His documents case was tossed out by a federal judge in Florida, a Trump appointee, on the grounds that Smith was unlawfully appointed.
Trump also faces two state cases — in New York and Georgia. He was convicted in New York in May of 34 counts of falsifying business records to cover up a hush money payment to porn star Stormy Daniels on the eve of the 2016 election to stop her from revealing an alleged 2006 sexual encounter. Trump was scheduled to be sentenced in July, but his lawyers asked that his conviction be tossed in light of the Supreme Court immunity ruling. Judge Juan Merchan is to rule on the dismissal motion on November 12 and has set sentencing — should it still be necessary — for November 26. Trump, the first former president convicted of a crime, faces up to four years in prison on each count. As a first-time offender, however, he was considered far more likely to receive a fine and probation — and that was before his White House win. “It would also be possible to have a deferred sentence if it involved any jail term,” said Claire Finkelstein, a law professor at the University of Pennsylvania.
In Georgia, Trump faces racketeering charges over his efforts to subvert the 2020 results in the southern state, but that case will likely be frozen while he is in office under the policy of not prosecuting a sitting president. The case has also been bogged down in accusations of impropriety by the Fulton County district attorney, Fani Willis, who had an intimate relationship with the man she hired to be a special prosecutor.
– Chris Lefkow
© 2024 AFP
