Trump Banks On Election Win to Make Criminal Cases Go Away
(Bloomberg) -- For Donald Trump, the outcome of Tuesday’s election is about more than winning the White House — it may shield him from criminal prosecutions.
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With his victory, Trump, 78, minimized any risk of spending years behind bars. Instead, Trump’s defeat of Vice President Kamala Harris sets the stage for the president-elect to dismiss the federal charges and reinvigorates his push to quash a pair of state cases.
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Trump can wield the vast powers of the US presidency to shut down the federal prosecutions, because he will have ultimate authority over the Justice Department. Although he can’t order state prosecutors to drop cases, Trump could attempt to delay them indefinitely.
The most immediate legal threat to Trump is a Nov. 26 sentencing by a New York state judge in the so-called hush money case — the only one that’s gone to trial so far. Trump’s win gives his legal team fresh arguments to try to cancel the sentencing and have the case tossed out entirely.
Trump has denied wrongdoing in all of the cases that state and federal prosecutions have brought against him.
Hush-Money Case (New York State)
In May, a New York jury found Trump guilty of 34 felony counts for falsifying business records to conceal a $130,000 payment to former adult-film actress Stormy Daniels before the 2016 election. Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg alleged the payment was part of a scheme to influence the election by keeping tabloid stories from being published.
New York state judge Juan Merchan delayed the sentencing until after Tuesday’s election. Trump has asked to have the verdict tossed out, arguing the trial included evidence that shouldn’t have been allowed under a new US Supreme Court immunity standard.
In July, the high court held that former presidents are largely immune from criminal charges stemming from official conduct while in office. Merchan said he’ll rule by Nov. 12 on Trump’s immunity argument.
With Trump’s win, the judge could call off the sentencing to avoid concerns around the president-elect appearing in criminal court and the case could be adjourned until Trump’s term is over. In light of the election win, Trump’s lawyers will probably also fight have the verdict tossed out.
Federal Election Fraud Case (Washington)
Special Counsel Jack Smith in August 2023 charged Trump with conspiring to reverse the 2020 election results and inciting a deadly riot at the US Capitol.
Trump argued that he’s immune from prosecution because he was president, a fight that made it all the way to the Supreme Court. While the justices broadly sided with Trump, they sent the case back to US District Judge Tanya Chutkan to decide if it could move forward under the court’s new immunity standard.
Smith, seeking to keep the case alive, in August filed an updated indictment that removed some details that could be impacted by the SCOTUS ruling, but included the same claims against Trump.
Now, Trump will likely direct his attorney general to shut down the case. Trump also told a conservative podcaster he’d quickly fire Smith.
Federal Classified Documents Case (Florida)
Smith in June 2023 charged Trump with dozens of counts of retaining national security documents after leaving the White House and repeatedly obstructing US efforts to get the records back.
US District Judge Aileen Cannon dismissed the case in July after ruling that Smith’s appointment was unconstitutional. The Trump-appointee determined that Congress hadn’t given Attorney General Merrick Garland authority to appoint a private citizen as a special counsel. The government has appealed, arguing the ruling veered from decades of legal tradition upholding the work of special prosecutors in high-profile criminal cases.
As with the election fraud case, Trump can quickly move to have the prosecution dropped by the Justice Department. That would prevent the appeals court from being able to reinstate the case as the government is currently seeking to do.
Election Fraud Case (Georgia State)
Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis in August 2023 filed her own case against Trump over the 2020 election based on Georgia state law. The Georgia prosecution accused more than a dozen Trump backers, including lawyer Rudy Giuliani, of participating in a scheme that violated state racketeering law.
The case has also been put on hold until an appeals court resolves whether Willis should be removed because of a romance with one of the prosecutors.
Trump’s lawyers will likely seek to have the case tossed out on grounds that continuing to prosecute Trump would interfere with his constitutional duties.
(Updates with election win throughout.)
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