Donald Trump’s victory over Kamala Harris immediately raised questions about the viability of the various criminal cases against him, including whether he will be sentenced this month as scheduled — and whether he can pardon himself.
Trump, who was found guilty of 34 crimes in May and will become the first U.S. president with a criminal record, is also facing charges in other state and federal courts over his apparent attempts to disrupt the election process and hoard classified documents.
The president-elect also faces hundreds of millions in penalties in civil cases alleging sexual abuse, defamation and fraud.
Related: ‘A wrecking ball’: Experts warn Trump’s victory will set back global climate action
Trump’s delay-based legal strategy, which has proven highly successful for him, could mean he can avoid punishment and jail time in his criminal hush-money case in New York City.
After the trial and guilty verdict, Trump was initially expected to be sentenced in July and then in September. Trump’s lawyers then asked the judge, Juan Merchan, this summer for a delay so he could review the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision, which granted broad immunity to former presidents for official acts while in office.
The decision held that unofficial acts do not carry immunity, and his New York lawsuit focused largely on his 2016 attempts to suppress negative stories about an alleged sexual encounter with an adult film star that occurred before his time in the White House to bury.
However, some of the prosecution’s evidence at trial concerned personal actions Trump took during his presidency, and in September Merchan decided to postpone Trump’s scheduled sentencing that month until November 26 – after the election. He said he agreed to postpone the proceedings “in order to avoid any appearance – however unfounded – that the proceedings have been influenced by or seek to influence the impending presidential elections in which the suspect is a candidate.”
Merchan also said he would issue his decision on presidential immunity on November 12, which could well call the conviction into question if he rules in Trump’s favor.
U.S. presidents have the power to pardon any federal criminal charge, and some legal scholars believe this includes self-pardons.
However, the pardon power does not apply to state cases, so Trump cannot pardon himself for the crimes.
But the chances of him being convicted now in Manhattan are slim, even if the case survives his claim to presidential immunity. As Politico noted, Trump’s lawyers are almost guaranteed to argue that he should not return to the court during the presidential transition.
It adds that in the seemingly unlikely event that Merchan sentences Trump to incarceration, he is unlikely to spend a day behind bars until his term as president ends in 2029. The same probably applies if he is sentenced to community service or house arrest. Given that his lawyers are about to argue that a future or sitting president should not serve a sentence, Politico noted.
Trump faces several other criminal charges. He faces charges in Fulton County, Georgia, of attempting to undermine the 2020 election. That case remains pending appeal, following a scandal in which the district attorney, Fani Willis, apparently hired the man she had had an affair with as one of the prosecutors.
Proceedings in that case too could almost certainly not resume until 2029, reports suggest.
Trump also faces allegations of federal election interference in Washington DC.
Another case against him, alleging that he illegally kept top-secret government documents after leaving the White House, was dismissed in South Florida after the judge, Aileen Cannon, a Trump appointee, cited the Supreme Court ruling . Prosecutors are appealing.
The Justice Department has long maintained that a sitting president cannot be prosecuted, and the president appoints the attorney general, who heads the Justice Department and determines which prosecutions it pursues — or abandons. The attorney general also presides over the appointment of special counsel: Joe Biden’s attorney general, Merrick Garland, appointed Jack Smith as special counsel in 2022 in the federal cases against Trump.
Trump has said he would fire Smith “in two seconds.”
On Wednesday morning, as the election results appeared to have gone decisively in Trump’s favor, Senator Lindsey Graham, a Trump loyalist, expressed a similar sentiment, writing in a social media post addressed to Smith and his team:
“It’s time to look forward to a new chapter in your legal career as these politically motivated charges against President Trump hit a wall.
“The Supreme Court has substantially rejected what you tried to do, and after tonight it is clear that the American people are tired of the practice of law. Put an end to these cases. The American people deserve payback.”
As for the civil cases against him, Trump’s return to the White House does not provide the same level of protection. In the case of Clinton v Jones, the Supreme Court ruled that a sitting president could be indicted, allowing the federal lawsuit against Bill Clinton over sexual harassment by Paula Jones to proceed while Clinton remained president. Trump is appealing decisions in his civil lawsuits over sexual abuse and financial fraud.
