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Donald Trump’s victory could essentially end the criminal cases brought against him at least for four years he occupies the White House. He faces prosecutions in a hush money case in New York, 2020 election interference, classified documents case
State and federal prosecutors wanted to take their cases against Donald Trump before the election day but his legal team deployed a series of delayed tactics. (Getty Images)
The United States has elected a convicted felon, Donald Trump, to the White House, who is still awaiting sentencing in his hush money case in New York. He was declared winner after US media projections on Wednesday.
In his victory speech, Trump said, “This will truly be the golden age of America”.
State and federal prosecutors had hoped to take their cases against Trump before the election day but his legal team deployed series of delayed tactics, which resulted in just one criminal trial in Manhattan.
According to a CNN report, Trump’s special counsel Jack Smith is in active talks with the Justice Department leadership about how to end the federal cases against Trump.
Let us look at the pending cases against the 47th President of the United States.
New York Conviction
On May 30, Trump was found guilty of 34 counts of falsifying business records relating to a hush money payment made to adult film star Stormy Daniels by his then-lawyer, Michael Cohen, before the 2016 presidential election. Trump is appealing the verdict.
The Manhattan judge delivered the verdict in May, making Trump the first former President convicted of felony charges.
Trump’s sentencing has been delayed in the case. It was originally scheduled just days before the Republican National Convention in July, where Trump officially accepted the party’s nomination, and then again in September. His sentencing date is set for November 26, 2024.
Florida Case
The charges brought by Smith against president-elect Trump in Florida accuse him of illegally taking classified documents from the White House and resisting the government’s attempts to retrieve the materials.
The case was dismissed in July by Aileen Cannon, who has been appointed to the federal bench by Trump. Her ruling said that Attorney General Merrick Garland’s appointment of Smith violated the Constitution.
A roster circulated within the Trump campaign said that the president-elect is considering appointing Cannon as the new attorney general, as per Newsweek.
Cannon first drew scrutiny after she granted the former president’s request for a special master to review the materials seized from Mar-a-Lago during the August 2022 raid of Trump’s property in Palm Beach, as per Newsweek. The decision was reversed and rebuked by the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals.
Trump’s main legal strategy has been to delay the trials so that, if elected, he could fire Smith, leading to the end of the cases in Florida and DC.
Washington DC Cases
Trump faces four charges in federal court in Washington accusing him of spreading false claims of election fraud to try to block the collection and certification of votes following the 2020 election, which Trump lost to Democrat Joe Biden. Trump has pleaded not guilty and insisted that the accusations were a political move.
The case was stalled for months as Trump pressed federal courts to grant him presidential immunity, and in July the Supreme Court issued a historic ruling that said he had some immunity from criminal prosecution.
Georgia Racketeering Case
Prosecutors in Fulton County, Georgia, last year used state racketeering laws — developed to fight organised crime — to charge Trump in an alleged conspiracy to reverse his defeat in the battleground state in the 2020 election.
Trump’s lawyer has already said in court he will seek to pause any activity related to Trump based on an argument that a president should not face the burden of a criminal prosecution while in office.
Trump and eight of his 14 co-defendants in the case are asking a Georgia appeals court to disqualify the lead prosecutor, Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis, over alleged misconduct stemming from a romantic relationship she had with a former deputy. Oral arguments are scheduled for December 5.
Civil Lawsuits
New York Attorney General Letitia James filed a lawsuit against Trump, his three eldest children and the Trump Organization, alleging that they engaged in financial fraud by inflating property values to secure favourable loans and insurance terms.
A federal appeals court had ruled in October that Trump could be sued in civil court for his role in allegedly inciting the riot on Capitol Hill in January 2021. A riot broke out as lawmakers were meeting inside Congress to certify President Joe Biden’s victory in the 2020 election. In the hours beforehand, Trump had addressed a rally in Washington DC where he urged supporters to march to the Capitol. During the violence, at least 138 Capitol and Metropolitan Police officers were injured by rioters. Four police officers died from suicide in the months after the attack.
Trump lost two defamation cases to E Jean Carroll in 2023 and 2024 in federal court after a jury found him liable for sexually abusing the onetime columnist and subsequently defaming her. Two juries awarded Carroll $5 million and $83 million. A federal appeals court heard Trump’s appeal to dismiss the first Carroll verdict in September. The court has yet to issue a decision.
The cases against Trump can continue to play out as he serves his second term in the White House. During his first presidential term, Trump had raised the idea of US president pardoning himself from the cases.
The Supreme Court in a 1997 ruling, stemming from a civil lawsuit against then President Bill Clinton, unanimously decided that sitting presidents could not invoke presidential immunity to avoid civil litigation while in office.