Trump wins biggest legal victory ever when Jack Smith pulls the plug

President-elect Trump won his biggest legal victory yet on Monday, when special counsel Jack Smith announced himself. I request dismissal It’s one of two federal lawsuits Trump faces.

The decision was made based on the long-standing view that a sitting president cannot be subject to criminal prosecution while in office.

A judge in one of the cases regarding Trump’s actions related to the Capitol riot on January 6, 2021, ordered a proper dismissal. U.S. District Court Judge Tanya Chutkan He stated that he was dismissed “Without prejudice,” it was also “consistent with the Government’s understanding that the immunity granted to a sitting President is temporary and will terminate when he leaves office.”

To put it bluntly, this means that an investigation could theoretically be reopened after Trump leaves office at the end of his second term.

But given the long pause and the fact that Trump will be 82 by the time his final term ends, that seems unlikely as a practical matter. If Trump is replaced by another Republican, there will be no real possibility of a new investigation.

This shows what a huge personal reward Trump has won by defeating Vice President Harris in this month’s election.

In addition to becoming the first person to win nonconsecutive presidential terms since former President Grover Cleveland in the late 19th century, Trump’s victory also virtually evaporated any legal threats he faced.

The second case affected by Smith’s move on Monday involved the discovery of sensitive documents at Mar-a-Lago. The charges included conspiracy to obstruct justice and 32 counts of intentional withholding of national defense information.

Some legal observers believed the investigation into the Mar-a-Lago case was the strongest example of the charges Trump faces.

But the case was dismissed in July by a Trump-appointed judge who ruled that Smith had been appointed illegally.

Smith’s team was appealing the decision. The objection will now be abandoned.

The fate of two other criminal cases filed since Trump left office in early 2021 is also at stake.

Trump’s team will likely seek to dismiss the New York case that resulted in his conviction in May on 34 counts of falsifying business records. At the heart of the issue was the hush money paid to adult actress Stormy Daniels.

The prosecutor in that case, Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg (D), has already acknowledged that sentencing should wait until Trump completes his second term. Trump’s lawyers argued that if the case remained active, Trump’s performance as president would be impaired and the case should be dismissed.

That leaves only one state lawsuit in Georgia regarding efforts by Trump and his allies to overturn the 2020 election results. The team is also mired in pretrial wrangling as Trump tries to force the prosecutor and Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis (D) off the case.

As a result, while Trump may have a black mark in the history books as the first criminal to be elected president, he may not face consequences anywhere.

Naturally, Trump and his allies took a victory lap after Smith’s decision.

“These lawsuits, like every other lawsuit I have had to file, are futile and unlawful and should never have been filed,” Trump wrote in a social media post.

Allies joined in, with Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.) arguing that Smith’s lawsuits “will be remembered as a dark chapter in arms warfare.” Echoing Trump’s rhetoric about Smith, Cotton accused the prosecutor of being “fanatical” and “unbalanced.”

But to Democrats and liberal Americans more broadly, the real injustice is that Trump has blatantly evaded the legal consequences of his actions.

Rep. Dan Goldman (D-Y) said during a CNN interview that the verdict “establishes that Donald Trump is above the law” and will likely “escape full responsibility for the crimes indicted by the grand jury.”

Sen.-Elect Adam Schiff (D-Calif.), one of Trump’s chief tormentors while in the House, complained Monday that the Department of Justice (DOJ) and the court system “do not uphold the principle that no one is superior.” law.”

“The people deserved better”

Schiff implied that the Justice Department, under outgoing Attorney General Merrick Garland, waited too long to set the wheels of justice in motion against Trump. Garland appointed Smith in late November 2022, more than two years after President Biden defeated Trump.

Opinions on Trump’s criminal culpability, like so much in contemporary American life, are largely divided along partisan lines. But belief in his guilt extends far beyond Democratic partisans or critics in the media.

A. New York Times/Siena College poll In April, Americans were asked whether they believed Trump had “committed serious federal crimes.”

54 percent of registered voters said they did so, while 34 percent said they did not. While 88 percent of Democrats and 52 percent of independents shared this view, only 19 percent of Republicans shared this view.

72 percent of Republicans argued that Trump did not commit such crimes.

For now, one thing seems clear.

Trump’s election victory also gave him freedom from any real threat of legal punishment.

Note is a column written by Niall Stanage.

Head to The Hill for the latest news, weather, sports and streaming video.

Related Posts