Trump elected president: What happened to the court cases against him? | 2024 US election

Donald Trump has many reasons to celebrate his victory in the US presidential election, but one stands out.

The president-elect could now be exonerated from the criminal charges that have hung over him like the sword of Damocles — at least while he was in the White House.

For most of the past year, Trump has been fighting four simultaneous impeachments, two related to his efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 election, one related to his mishandling of classified national documents and another related to his hush money payments to former movie star Stormy Daniels. .

Hours after he was declared the winner on Wednesday, government officials were already looking at ways to drop two charges related to election meddling and the mishandling of classified documents as it is assumed that sitting US presidents will not be prosecuted or imprisoned while in office.

That presumption is based on a US Department of Justice policy dating back to 1973 and confirmed in 2000 that keeps sitting presidents from being tried or arrested while in office.

Trump may be further emboldened by a Supreme Court ruling in July that grants presidents “absolute immunity” from prosecution for official acts and the presumption of immunity in broad cases where professional links can be proven – regardless of how they are viewed.

As Trump prepares to be sworn into office in January, here are the key impeachment documents that may now be hidden behind a dusty drawer in the Oval Office:

Federal costs

Trump is facing two separate charges related to his meddling in the 2020 election and his collection of classified documents at his Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida. Both cases were filed by Jack Smith, a special counsel for the Department of Justice.

Because of Trump’s election as president, Smith may complete both cases, avoiding a confrontation with the president-elect who promised to fire him “within two seconds” of taking office.

Attorney James Trusty, who represented Trump in both cases, said the Justice Department may be reluctant to “pull the plug” on the cases.

“Politically, I think they would like to get the finger of the Trump administration for the disappearance of cases,” he told Reuters news agency.

The two cases are as follows:

Meddling in the 2020 election

In 2022, Smith was tasked by a committee of the US House of Representatives to investigate Trump’s alleged attempt to overturn the results of the 2020 election before the bloody attack on the US Capitol by his supporters on January 6, 2021.

The following year, Smith indicted Trump on four felony charges, including conspiracy to defraud the US and conspiracy to obstruct legal proceedings.

Federal Judge Tanya Chutkan scheduled a trial in Washington, DC, for March, which was delayed after Trump said he should be entitled to immunity as a former president.

In July, the Supreme Court agreed with Trump’s arguments, giving presidents broad immunity from prosecution, even in personal cases where business links can be proven.

Smith refiled the case in August, saying the charges were unrelated to the former president’s work.

A case of top secret documents

In a lawsuit filed in Florida in 2022, Smith also accused Trump of keeping top secret documents at his Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida and obstructing the FBI’s efforts to retrieve them.

FBI agents obtained more than 100 classified records, and Trump’s lawyers eventually provided four more documents that were found in his bedroom.

In July, Florida-based Judge Aileen Cannon, a Trump appointee to the bench in 2020, dismissed the charges, ruling that Smith’s appointment as prosecutor was not authorized by Congress and was therefore unconstitutional. Smith appealed Cannon’s decision.

State crimes

Trump also fought two indictments brought by federal prosecutors in New York and Georgia.

The two cases are as follows:

Stormy Daniels silences the money case

After being found guilty by a Manhattan jury in May of falsifying business records to hide hush money payments to porn star Stormy Daniels before the 2016 presidential election, Trump will become the first president to enter the White House with a criminal record.

Trump, who said the case was a “witch hunt”, wanted to prevent Daniels from revealing allegations of sexual encounters in 2006, fearing it would hurt him during the 2016 campaign. He was convicted of 34 charges in that case.

Considering that he could be sentenced to four years in prison. But, even before this week’s election victory, some legal experts believe that a first-time offender could face fines and probation.

Judge Juan Merchan was supposed to sentence Trump on November 26, the case may not go ahead.

Merchan had twice postponed Trump’s sentencing, which had been scheduled for July 11, in part because of a July Supreme Court ruling on presidential immunity.

If the sentencing hearing continues, the sentence will be postponed “if it involves imprisonment”, University of Pennsylvania law professor Claire Finkelstein told AFP news agency.

Trump said the case should be dismissed entirely based on the president’s immunity decision, which prosecutors opposed before the election.

If he does not succeed in the dismissal of the case, the convicted suspect may continue to suffer after he leaves office.

Georgia ‘racketeering’ case

Trump is facing multiple criminal charges for his efforts to overturn the outcome of the 2020 election in the battleground state of Georgia.

Joe Biden narrowly won the state and the presidency, but Trump and his allies allegedly continued to spread false information about voter fraud, relying on Georgia officials and lawmakers to reverse the result.

Last year, Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis accused Trump and 18 of his co-defendants of setting up a “criminal enterprise” to keep the former president in power, basing the charges on state fraud laws designed to deal with criminals.

But the trial took a turn for the soap opera after it was revealed that Willis had an affair with special prosecutor Nathan Wade, a man she hired. In January, Michael Roman, one of Trump’s co-defendants, filed a lawsuit accusing him of impropriety.

In March, Fulton County Superior Court Judge Scott McAfee ruled that Willis could stay if Wade left. Wade quickly tendered his resignation, prompting Willis – reprimanded by the judge for his “bad” judgment – to continue prosecuting the case.

Earlier that month, McAfee had dismissed six of the 41 counts in the Georgia case. All six focused on how Trump and his allies persuaded elected officials to violate their oaths of office in a campaign to overturn the election results.

Trump and his eight co-defendants in the case are now asking a Georgia appeals court to acquit Willis of misconduct. Oral arguments were scheduled for December 5.

It is unclear whether the hearing will continue. But even if Willis were to proceed with the case, legal experts say it’s unlikely he would be able to move forward with the case against Trump while in office.

Anthony Michael Kreis, a professor at Georgia State College of Law, said the X case will not continue until Trump leaves office in 2029.

“Will there be political will at the end of Trump’s second term to try him in Georgia? This is a long time for the first criminal cases,” he said in the post.

So it looks like Trump may be off the hook — at least for now.