Donald Trump will not stand trial in connection with his alleged criminal attempts to overturn the 2020 election results — at least not anytime soon. With his presidential victory, the demise of the federal election interference case is inevitable, and the state election interference case in Georgia will not be prosecuted against him while he is in office.
But state criminal charges — which presidents cannot dismiss or pardon — will still be filed against Trump allies. That is, while the main defendant runs the country, others continue to face potential criminal consequences related to their alleged efforts to ensure Trump retained power despite losing the 2020 election. (Trump pleaded not guilty in all four of his criminal cases.)
We recently received two reminders of these ongoing state affairs.
Arizona Attorney General Kris Mayes told MSNBC’s Ali Velshi on Sunday that she has no plans to drop the case against Rudy Giuliani, Mark Meadows and others who have also pleaded not guilty. “A grand jury in the state of Arizona has decided that these individuals who engaged in an effort to overthrow our democracy in 2020 must be held accountable so that we will not be intimidated and intimidated,” she said. (I previously explored the somewhat strange situation in which Trump was not indicted in Arizona, despite the grand jury’s apparent interest in him as a defendant.)
In the state case in which Trump has been charged, one of his co-defendants, Meadows, received bad news from the Supreme Court on Tuesday. It declined to consider his attempt to transfer his charges against Georgia to federal court, removing a potential complication in Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis’ racketeering case. Of course, complications remain in the case, which is currently on appeal in the defense’s attempt to disqualify Willis.
We don’t know how either case will turn out against these other defendants. But a hallmark of Trump’s second term will be the indictments of people who allegedly worked to keep him in power illegally in 2020 as he wields the power he gained through the ballot box in 2024.
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This article was originally published on MSNBC.com
