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If Donald Trump becomes president in 2024, this could help him in his four criminal cases.
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“Politics aside, there is a lot at stake for Trump legally,” said one legal expert.
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Trump has vowed to immediately fire the special counsel who brought two federal cases against him.
Not only is the presidency on the line for Donald Trump in the 2024 election, but so are his four criminal charges.
If he wins, the former president would be largely freed from dealing with his criminal cases for the foreseeable future. The loss of Democratic rival Vice President Kamala Harris means he must face these issues head-on.
“Politics aside, there is a lot at stake for Trump legally” in the Nov. 5 election, former federal prosecutor Neama Rahmani told Business Insider.
Here’s what will happen to Trump’s four criminal cases — two federal and two state — if he wins or loses president this year.
The hush money case in New York
Whether Trump wins or loses the election, he will have a mandatory sentencing date of November 26 in Manhattan on his calendar.
Trump, the first U.S. president convicted of a crime, faces zero to four years in prison for his May conviction on 34 felony counts of falsifying company records to cover up his $130,000 hush money payment to adult film actor Stormy Daniels.
There is a chance that the date will be postponed. Trump has vowed to challenge his indictment and conviction in New York appeals courts. He will argue that the evidence in the case includes acts committed in his official role as president — evidence excluded under the U.S. Supreme Court’s landmark immunity decision in July.
Once convicted, experts say more appeals could even mean a prison sentence for years to come — though a prison sentence is highly unlikely, a quartet of former New York judges previously told BI.
Winning the presidency would expand matters even further, as Trump could argue that he is too busy running the country to deal with his personal legal problems.
Professor Michael Dorf of Cornell Law School said it is likely that if Trump wins back the White House, he will immediately file court papers to delay sentencing until he is no longer president.
Rahmani, the president and co-founder of West Coast Trial Lawyers, said he does not believe Trump would be sentenced to prison “regardless of the outcome of the election.”
“Trump winning makes it logistically impossible and the certainty that he will not get time,” Rahmani said.
Trump’s federal affairs
Trump has filed two federal charges, both filed by special counsel Jack Smith, and both are eligible for a presidential pardon, although a self-pardon has never been attempted.
If Trump is re-elected president, he could ask his attorney general to fire Smith. He could also ask the courts to halt federal prosecutions because there is a long-standing Justice Department policy that a sitting president cannot be prosecuted while in office or attempt to pardon himself, Dorf said .
Trump said in a conservative radio interview last month that if elected, he would fire Smith “in two seconds.”
Justice Department regulations only allow a special counsel to be fired for cause, but Trump could have his attorney general revoke that policy, Dorf noted.
Firing Smith “is in principle his right as president, although I would expect Smith to resign before then, as a matter of course,” said Michel Paradis, a lawyer who teaches national security and constitutional law at Columbia Law School.
“The most important thing to watch is what Jack Smith does between Election Day and January 20 to potentially protect these prosecutions from interference,” Paradis said.
“There’s not much he can do to make them rock solid, since the president ultimately does control the Justice Department,” Paradis said.
One thing Smith could try before Trump is sworn in is to try to suspend both proceedings during the presidency, again on the grounds that sitting presidents cannot be prosecuted while in office, Paradis said.
Trump has pleaded not guilty to both federal charges.
In response to a request for comment, Trump campaign spokesman Steven Cheung said: “The Lyin’ Kamala Harris – Crooked Joe Biden witch hunts against President Trump have imploded, as has their failed campaign, and must all be dismissed in light of the historical statements of the Supreme Court. decision on immunity and other essential case law.”
A DOJ spokesperson did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The case of federal election interference
If Trump loses, that doesn’t mean Smith’s prosecution of Trump’s most serious federal case — allegations that he tried to overturn the 2020 election — will continue at full speed.
Citizen Trump would continue to fight the so-called election interference case on the grounds of presidential immunity, experts predict.
In July, the U.S. Supreme Court issued a landmark opinion granting presidents broad protection from prosecution for their official actions. The opinion also prohibits the use of evidence from official actions in any prosecution of a former president, even on charges unrelated to official actions.
In August, Smith won a revised indictment that highlights Trump’s conduct as a private, office-seeking citizen.
The Case of Federal Secret Documents
Trump’s classified documents case, alleging he failed to return government secrets he took from the White House, was dismissed in July by Trump-nominated U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon, who said the Smith’s appointment was unconstitutional.
Smith is now appealing the dismissal, which states that Congress should have approved Smith’s appointment, to the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals. Smith’s calls point to what he calls “the long tradition of special counsel appointments by attorneys general.”
Anyone who loses the appeal can appeal further, which will keep Trump busy with the case with secret documents for months.
The case of election interference in Georgia
Georgia’s election interference case against Trump and 18 of his allies remains in legal limbo, thanks to the defendants’ efforts to disqualify Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis from the state’s case.
In May, an appeals court in Georgia agreed to consider Trump’s bid to remove Willis from the case.
Lawyers for Trump and his co-defendants had previously argued in a motion to disqualify Willis that she had a conflict of interest in the case because she improperly benefited from a romantic relationship with Nathan Wade, the Atlanta attorney she hired as a special prosecutor.
After a hearing earlier this year, a judge ruled that Willis and her office could remain on the case as long as Wade stepped aside, and Wade announced his resignation hours later.
Trump has denied guilt in the charges against Georgia.
If Trump wins the presidency, he can immediately file papers with the Georgia court, “saying you have to delay this for the time I’m president because it’s just not consistent with federal supremacy to make a state a to prosecute the sitting president. Dorf, an expert on constitutional law, said.
“He has no control over the prosecutors, so you can’t fire them, and he can’t pardon himself because these are state crimes, so his only option in state cases is to suspend them,” Dorf said.
If Trump loses the election, the case could continue. Although Trump will likely move to get fired based on the Supreme Court’s ruling on presidential immunity.
Read the original article on Business Insider
