The election victory gives Trump a reprieve from federal and state charges

FILE PHOTO: Republican presidential candidate and former U.S. President Donald Trump attends a campaign rally sponsored by conservative group Turning Point USA in Duluth, Georgia, U.S., Oct. 23, 2024. REUTERS/Carlos Barria/File Photo | Photo credit: Reuters

Donald Trump’s election victory not only catapults him back into the White House, but also gives him a respite from looming court battles and mounting bills.

As US president, the 78-year-old Mr Trump can ensure that the federal criminal cases before him disappear and the state cases are put on hold until he leaves the Oval Office in four years.

Special counsel Jack Smith has filed two federal lawsuits against Mr. Trump for conspiring to overturn the 2020 election results and misusing top-secret documents after leaving the White House.

He also faces racketeering charges for his alleged attempts to manipulate the 2020 election results in Georgia and was convicted in May in a hush-money trial in New York. But a Supreme Court ruling in May granted him broad immunity from prosecution.

Mr. Trump vowed during the campaign to fire Mr. Smith “within two seconds” of taking office, even though he does not have presidential powers. But he could name a new attorney general who could do that. The new president could also simply order the Justice Department to drop the charges.

Mr. Smith, who was appointed by Merrick Garland, President Joe Biden’s attorney general, filed two lawsuits against Mr. Trump – for conspiring to overturn the 2020 election results and for misusing top-secret documents after leaving the White House.

Mr. Trump is also charged with conspiracy to defraud the United States and conspiracy to obstruct an official proceeding – the session of Congress was convened to certify the victory of Biden, who was violently attacked by a mob of his supporters on January 6, 2021.

The Republican is also accused of disenfranchising US voters with his false claims that he won the 2020 election.

His documents case was dismissed by a federal judge in Florida, a Trump appointee, on the grounds that Mr. Smith was unlawfully appointed. The special counsel has appealed the dismissal, but both federal cases appear doomed after Mr. Trump won the presidency.

He was convicted in May in New York of 34 counts of falsifying business records to cover up a hush money payment to Stormy Daniels on the eve of the 2016 election to prevent her from disclosing an alleged 2006 sexual encounter.

Mr. Trump’s sentencing was scheduled for July, but his lawyers asked that his conviction be overturned in light of the Supreme Court’s immunity ruling.

Judge Juan Merchan is scheduled to rule on the motion to dismiss on November 12th and has scheduled sentencing – should it still be necessary – for November 26th.

Mr. Trump, the first former president to be convicted of a crime, faces up to four years in prison on each count. However, as a first-time offender, he was considered far more likely to receive a fine and probation – and that was before his White House victory.

“It would also be possible to defer the sentence if it involved a prison sentence,” said Claire Finkelstein, a law professor at the University of Pennsylvania.

In Georgia, Trump faces criminal charges over his efforts to undermine the 2020 results in the southern state. However, the case is likely to be frozen while he is in office because federal policy is not to prosecute a sitting president.

The case has also been bogged down by allegations of impropriety by Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis, who had a close relationship with the man she hired as special prosecutor.