What will happen to criminal and civil cases now that Trump has been re-elected? - WSVN 7News | Miami News, Weather, Sports

(CNN) — Donald Trump was re-elected to the White House as a convicted felon awaiting sentencing in the New York secret money case and still trying to fend off prosecution in other state and federal cases.

This is an extraordinarily unique position for him: Never before has a criminal defendant been elected to the nation’s highest office, just as a former president was never charged with a crime until last year.

Trump has repeatedly said he plans to fire special counsel Jack Smith and end federal lawsuits against him for trying to overturn the 2020 presidential election and mishandling classified documents.

“Agressively trying to delay these cases for as long as possible has clearly worked,” said Jessica Levinson, a constitutional law professor at Loyola Law School.

Meanwhile, a judge in New York is set to sentence the former president later this month after delaying sentencing before Election Day to avoid the appearance of affecting the outcome of the presidential race – but Trump’s lawyers are expected to make that decision. Ask the judge to delay the sentence since he is the president-elect.

Trump has denied all accusations. Here’s what you need to know about the four criminal cases:

Penalty to New York
Trump is scheduled to appear in a New York courtroom on Nov. 26 to receive sentencing for his conviction earlier this year on 34 counts of falsifying business records to cover up a hush money payment to adult film star Stormy Daniels during the 2016 campaign. A person who claims to have had a previous relationship with the president-elect. (Trump denies the relationship.)

Whether this punishment will occur remains an open question.

Judge Juan Merchan gave him until Nov. 12 to decide whether to expunge the conviction because of the Supreme Court’s decision this summer granting the president some presidential immunity. If Merchan does this, the charges will be dismissed and Trump will not be charged.

However, if the judge does not overturn the conviction, the former president’s lawyers are expected to ask Merchan to postpone Trump’s sentence so that they can appeal. And if that’s not granted, his lawyers plan to appeal the immunity ruling to state appeals courts and possibly all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court, asking the courts to delay Trump’s sentencing until all appeals are exhausted, which could take months.

If Merchan proceeds with sentencing, Trump could be sentenced to up to four years in prison, but the judge is not required to sentence the president-elect to prison and could impose a lighter sentence such as probation or house arrest. imprisonment, community service or fine.

Any sentencing would, of course, be complicated by the fact that Trump will be inaugurated on January 20, 2025. Trump’s lawyers will frame their appeal to raise constitutional issues about whether a state judge can punish the president-elect. can keep the case in the courts for years.

Because this is a state case, Trump does not have the authority to pardon him after he is inaugurated next year.

Federal lawsuits in DC and Florida
Trump’s election victory is poised to have the biggest impact on the two federal criminal cases Smith has filed against him in Washington, D.C. and Florida.

Since the lawsuits were filed in 2023, Trump’s main legal strategy has been to delay the lawsuits until after the election; so that if elected, he could fire Smith, thus ending both cases. In late October, the former president said he would take such a step without hesitation.

“Oh, that’s easy. When conservative radio host Hugh Hewitt asked if he would “pardon himself” or “fire Jack Smith” if re-elected, Trump said, “That’s easy.”

“I’ll fire him in two seconds,” Trump said.

Smith’s removal would allow the Justice Department and Trump’s attorney general to move to drop the charges against him and end the cases.

But until Inauguration Day on Jan. 20, Smith has time to weigh his options on issues the department has never had to confront before.

One of the first hurdles is whether the Justice Department’s Office of Legal Counsel will grant the president-elect the same legal protection against prosecution as the sitting president. That guidance will determine the next course of action, people with knowledge of the matter told CNN.

More than half a dozen people close to the special counsel’s office or other senior Justice Department officials told CNN they believed Smith did not want to close up shop without being ordered or pushed by Trump.

Under federal law, Smith must submit a confidential report on the work of his office to the attorney general before leaving office.

In the D.C. case, Smith faulted Trump for his efforts to overturn his 2020 election loss. The case was stalled for months as Trump pressed federal courts to grant him presidential immunity, and in July the Supreme Court issued a landmark decision saying he had jurisdiction over the matter. some immunity from criminal prosecution.

The federal judge overseeing the trial is deciding how much of Trump’s conduct at the center of the case is protected by immunity after prosecutors laid out their arguments last month for why the ruling should have no impact on the case.

The charges brought by Smith against the president-elect in Florida accuse Trump of illegally obtaining classified documents from the White House and resisting government attempts to retrieve those materials. That case was dismissed by Judge Aileen Cannon in July, but prosecutors appealed the decision, saying Attorney General Merrick Garland’s appointment of Smith violated the Constitution.

Georgia RICO case
The fate of Trump’s criminal case in Georgia depends largely on whether Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis, a Democrat, is disqualified from prosecuting the matter after a previous romantic relationship with a fellow prosecutor. But even if he is allowed to continue prosecuting Trump, the case will almost certainly be jeopardized now that Trump has been elected.

Charges against Trump that he attempted to overturn the 2020 presidential election results are effectively on hold while the appeals court decides whether to disqualify Willis. This decision is not expected until 2025.

Sources told CNN that if Willis is removed, it is unlikely that another prosecutor will want to take on the case and they think the case will effectively disappear.

Sources familiar with the case said it is unlikely that a state-level judge would allow the hearings to continue once Trump is president, and in that scenario Trump’s lawyers would certainly move to dismiss the case.

There is no clear answer as to whether a state-level prosecutor like Willis can prosecute a sitting president. Trump’s victory now forces Willis to confront this constitutional issue alongside existing legal issues that cast uncertainty over the future of the Georgia case.

civil lawsuits
The former president is also defending himself in numerous civil lawsuits, including those related to his role in the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol, two E. Jean Carroll defamation lawsuits and a civil fraud lawsuit filed by New York. The attorney general ordered Trump to pay approximately $454 million in damages.

In September, state and federal appeals courts in New York heard arguments on two of Trump’s legal appeals.

Trump lost two defamation lawsuits against Carroll in federal court in 2023 and 2024 after a jury found him liable for sexually harassing the onetime columnist and then slandering her. Two juries awarded Carroll $5 million and $83 million.

The federal appeals court heard Trump’s appeal to dismiss the original Carroll decision in September. The court has not yet made a decision.

Later in the month, a state appeals court heard arguments regarding Trump’s efforts to throw out a $454 million civil fraud verdict against him; In that decision, a judge found that Trump, his adult sons, and his company fraudulently inflated the value of Trump’s assets to get better credit. insurance rates.

The five-judge appeals court appeared open to at least lowering Trump’s sentence but has yet to rule. This decision may be appealed to New York’s highest court of appeals.

Trump also still faces civil lawsuits from Democratic lawmakers and others for his role in the Jan. 6 Capitol attack.

It’s possible that all of these lawsuits will continue even as Trump enters his second term in the White House. In a 1997 Supreme Court decision stemming from a civil case involving then-President Bill Clinton, the justices unanimously ruled that sitting presidents cannot use presidential immunity to avoid civil lawsuits while in office.

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