‘Now he has immunity’: Expert warns Trump could do ‘an awful lot’ in a second term without fear of prosecution

president-elect Donald Trump Tuesday’s presumptive victory jeopardizes court cases as he prepares to take office.

Trump’s federal criminal cases in Florida and Washington already faced an uncertain fate. Special Prosecutor Jack Smith sought to revive the first – dismissed earlier this year – on appeal to the 11th Circuit Court and re-charged the latest following a Supreme Court decision on official presidential acts in June. In Georgia, the election interference case against Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis has all but died in an appeals court. agreed to determine whether her relationship with the former chief prosecutor disqualified her from participating in the case. However, the president-elect’s sentencing in New York on 34 counts is still scheduled for late November after previous delays.

Now, following his election victory, experts tell Salon that Trump’s federal cases are essentially dead, and his Georgia trial is likely to follow suit, while his New York conviction is unlikely to represent is more than a financial slap in the face.

“For the most part, his ongoing legal battles will fade away,” said David Schultz, a professor of legal studies and political science at Hamline University in Minnesota.

“Given the fact that he now has Trump v. United States (Supreme Court) immunity, this potentially frees Trump to do a lot during his second term as President of the United States, in the sense that in which he might be limited. out of fear of running for re-election or because of possible prosecution,” he added in a telephone interview.

The charges in Trump’s federal case in Florida, in which he was accused of illegally possessing national security documents after leaving office and obstructing government efforts to obtain them, were fired in July. U.S. District Court Judge Eileen Cannon ruled that Smith was unconstitutionally appointed to oversee the case in violation of the Constitution’s appointments and appropriations provisions. Smith, however, appealed the dismissal to the 11th Circuit Court a few days later in an attempt to have the case reinstated.

The D.C. case, Smith v. Trump, accusing him of attempting to overturn President Joe Biden’s 2020 election victory and block Congress from certifying the results on Jan. 6, 2021, was dealt a heavy blow in July when the Supreme Court rules the former president was generally immune to official acts taken within the scope of “his fundamental constitutional powers” while he was in office.

The decision sent the task of determining which acts included in the charges are official back to the court of U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan. In August, Smith filed a new indictment against Trump that retained the same four counts and sought to avoid an immunity fight by removing allegations about the then-president’s communications with White House officials.

Both cases will be dropped once Trump returns to the White House, former federal prosecutor Niama Rahmani said in a telephone interview. Federal prosecutors, who have long had internal guidelines against prosecuting a sitting president, are likely to file motions to dismiss the case and file an appeal. If Smith’s office fails to do so, Trump could direct his new attorney general-elect to fire the special counsel and thus dismiss the cases.

“The only question is whether these cases will be dismissed in November, December or January,” Rahmani told Salon. “But Jack Smith needs to close these cases.”

Given the federal government’s practice of not prosecuting a sitting president, Rahmani said he expects District Attorney Willis to take a similar approach in the Georgia case. Bennett Gershman, a Pace University law professor and former New York City prosecutor, however, said such an outcome is unlikely.

“The Georgia case will continue to be led by Fani Willis, who was re-elected yesterday, and there is no reason to believe she will abandon the case,” Gershman told Salon via email. “In fact, there is every reason to believe that she will move forward aggressively.”

The Fulton County District Attorney charged Trump and 18 others, some of whom later accepted plea deals or had charges dropped, in a sweeping racketeering indictment last August, accusing them of conspiring to overturn the 2020 election results. in Georgia. The case was closed in the spring accusations that Willis benefited financially from her romantic relationship with the special prosecutor she hired to work on the case. Despite an attempt by Trump’s legal team to disqualify her over the claims unsuccessfulThe decision is currently under appeal, and the proceedings in the court of first instance have been suspended.

Shultz said he expects Trump’s legal team to ask for the case to be delayed until after his presidency because Trump will be “too distracted” by his presidency to pursue the prosecution once he takes office.

Rahmani added that the case cannot reasonably be put on hold for the duration of Trump’s presidency because he, like any other criminal defendant, has the right to a speedy trial. If Willis pursues the case, she will likely have to dismiss it and refile it later, but by then the statute of limitations on the criminal prosecution will have expired.

According to him, Trump’s criminal case in New York is more complicated because the jury has already convicted him.

---

Would you like to receive a daily summary of all Salon news and comments? Subscribe to our morning newslettercrash course.

---

The elected president was convicted 34 felonies related to falsifying business records in a conspiracy to cover up the payment of hush money to an adult film star were committed in May, with his sentencing initially set for mid-July at the conclusion of a trial characterized by violation of the gag order, attacks on outside parties and shaky defense. Despite delays to the sentencing date—it was first pushed back to mid-September before New York Supreme Court Justice Juan Merchan moved it back to November 26—Trump’s criminal trial in New York will continue.

Merchan said he will rule Nov. 12 on Trump’s motion to overturn his conviction under Trump v. United States, which also bars the introduction of evidence of official acts in criminal proceedings. CNN. Trump’s legal team argues that presenting evidence such as Trump’s tweets while in office and communications with former White House aide Hope Hicks during the New York proceedings should now be grounds for dismissal or retrial.

“Obviously, Trump’s lawyers will make a strong case for either delaying sentencing until after Trump leaves office in four years or dropping the case entirely. “,” Gershman said. “But I think the arguments for delaying or overturning the sentence are without merit. Execution will almost certainly be delayed while Trump appeals the verdict, which will be a lengthy process.”

Rahmani said he always expected Trump would ultimately avoid jail time (he could face up to four years in prison) because his charges represent the most low-level felonies in New York and he has no criminal history. , and it would be virtually impossible to imprison a former president under Secret Service protection.

“Now that he’s elected president, it makes it even less likely,” Rahmani said. “Judge Merchan did not put Trump in prison for 10 complete violations of his gag order, and he does not intend to sentence him to any time. He’ll probably be fined and that’ll be the end of it.”

Although Schultz agreed and raised the possibility of “minor probation,” Gershman argued that Merchan could face a prison sentence of six to 24 months, citing Merchan’s sentencing of former Trump Organization CFO Allen Weisselberg to five months for “conduct , much less disgusting than Trump.”

Asked what he took away from the way Trump’s various legal battles have unfolded over the past few months, each legal expert cited different points of contention.

Gershman criticized the “repetitive legal gimmicks, frivolous arguments and subterfuge” Trump’s legal team resorted to to delay his cases, as well as the role of the Supreme Court and Judge Cannon in making the lawyer’s gambit a “tremendous success.” Rahmani regretted the years it took for Willis and Smith to obtain indictments, as well as the scandal that erupted in the middle of the Willis case.

Shultz noted Trump’s effectiveness in using cases and litigation to his advantage in fundraising and campaigning.

“Democrats made a huge mistake in thinking that his legal troubles would lead to his demise, that there would be many trials, that he would be convicted multiple times, or that he would be so bogged down in his criminal trials that he would ultimately be unable to mount an effective campaign,” he said. “In fact, all the evidence suggests that he turned all of these charges into assets.”