Donald Trump could face jail in case of defeat
Obtaining a second warrant could shield him from many potential charges due to statute of limitations.
WASHINGTON - If Donald Trump seems to want to win the next election with more desperation than most candidates, he arguably has a good reason: In general, presidents don't have to worry about going to jail for defeat.
However, his actions in recent years - buying the silence of a porn star, demanding a huge tax refund, obstructing an investigation into his campaign's links to Russia - allied to a statute of limitations on the point to expire, mean that the election result could have far more consequences for Donald Trump than for his predecessors.
If he gets a second term, the deadline for bringing criminal charges on a number of those charges will be reached within the next four years, as the Justice Department has chosen not to prosecute a president. in exercise. However, if he loses, he could be quickly indicted.
“For him, winning this election is not an option but a necessity,” summarizes Michael Cohen. The former personal lawyer - and "handyman" - of Donald Trump was notably convicted for illegally buying the silence of the candidate's former mistresses before the 2016 election.
He's got so many criminal cases on his back!
"He knows that if his tax returns come out he and his children - Donald Jr, Ivanka, Eric - and other relatives will be accused of tax evasion, which will cost him not only his freedom but his entire business" , assures Michael Cohen.
Neither the White House nor Donald Trump's campaign team have agreed to answer our questions on the subject.
The president was already referred to as the “first individual” during the trial of his ex-lawyer. With the statute of limitations for many federal criminal offenses being five years, the deadline will be reached in late 2021 in cases of illegal payments to Trump's mistresses.
Daniel Goldman, a former federal prosecutor who a year ago was the lead lawyer in Donald Trump's impeachment proceedings before the House of Representatives, says that in 2021 the potential ex-president is also at risk of death. 'be accused of corruption for having pardoned his adviser Roger Stone, sentenced to prison, and extortion for having tried to force Ukraine to sully the reputation of its political rival, Joe Biden. Trump was subject to impeachment proceedings for the offense, but was cleared by the (Republican-majority) Senate to remain in office.
“He's got so many criminal cases on his back!” says Nick Ackerman, a former federal prosecutor, who was part of the task force created to investigate Richard Nixon in 1972 in connection with the Watergate affair.
Prosecutors are unlikely to be able to examine tax or banking fraud potentially committed by Donald Trump during the first three years of his first term if they must wait until the end of the second, in January 2025. Ditto for the president's attempts to suffocate in the egg the investigations carried out from 2017 to 2019 by the special prosecutor Robert Mueller on the help given to him by Russia to ensure him victory in the last elections.
“Again, the time limit [for bringing charges] would expire during his second term,” recalls Nick Ackerman.
While the law does not prohibit prosecuting a sitting president federally, a New York prosecutor told the Supreme Court in a trial involving Donald Trump's business records that he was not unaware the time constraints to which the president is subject.
“We realize that as an agent of the state, our office cannot investigate an action taken by the president in the course of his duties, nor prosecute a sitting president,” admitted Carey Dunne, general counsel. from the Manhattan District Attorney's Office in oral argument last May.
The prospect of being sued and incarcerated could explain Donald Trump's feverishness in recent months, and his repeated and sometimes abusive use of the powers conferred by his office to ensure his re-election.
In the spring, a letter sent to every U.S. household by the U.S. Center for Disease Control and Prevention about the coronavirus prominently featured the president's name, although the president had spent months downplaying the severity of the virus, ranging until they claimed it was a hoax. When the Treasury sent checks to Americans for $ 1,200, they too were named after Donald Trump.
More recently, Trump ignored warnings from public health experts to avoid large gatherings and resumed his campaign rallies at a breakneck pace, deeming them essential to winning the November 3 election. He has started playing down the virus again and argues, against all evidence, that the pandemic is about to end.
On October 20, he added water to his baseless “corruption” accusations against Joe Biden, demanding that the Minister of Justice, William Barr, open an investigation into his rival : “The Minister of Justice must act. He must act, and he must act fast, ”he said in a lengthy interview with Fox News. “This is a very serious case of corruption, and it should be known before the election.”
In the United States, life is usually tough on defeated presidential candidates. This “loser” label sticks to their skin. Democrat Jimmy Carter was looked down upon, including by many in his party, after his loss to Ronald Reagan in 1980. Longtime senator, Republican Bob Dole found himself making ads full of self-deprecation on television after losing the 1996 election to Bill Clinton.
However, although these candidates and many others faced ignominy, they never had to worry about the possibility of being put in jail for years if defeated.
The only conceivable precedent in the history of American politics is the case of Republican Richard Nixon, who resigned in 1974 after senators in his party made him understand that they would not support him if an impeachment request motivated by his role in the Watergate scandal was presented before the House. Gérald Ford, appointed vice-president in 1973 after the resignation of Spiro Agnew (himself indicted for corruption), pardoned Mr. Nixon barely a month after having succeeded him. “I cannot prolong these bad dreams that insist on reopening a closed chapter,” he said in a 10-minute prerecorded speech from the Oval Office.
Likewise, just because Donald Trump could face criminal charges does not necessarily mean that it will.
Joe Biden, who is leading his campaign on the nation's unification and “healing” after the Trump presidency, pledged in an interview on MSNBC in May not to pardon Donald Trump. He said, however, that he would not urge his justice minister to act one way or the other. "It is not for the president to decide whether to prosecute or close a case," Biden said.
Others, however, including Republicans, say it is essential for things to get back to normal that a president as regularly and blatantly criminal as Donald Trump be held accountable.
“For the integrity of the constitution of our republic, our elected officials must be held accountable for their actions. This also applies to Trump, ”insists Rick Tyler, a Republican consultant who worked on Senator Ted Cruz's campaign in 2016.
“We cannot reward criminal behavior, be it by Trump or any of the scoundrels who work for him in Cabinet, the White House or elsewhere,” endorses Norman Ornstein of the American Enterprise Institute, a think tank classified on the right.
