At the end of his term, what court cases threaten Donald Trump?
Soon deprived of the protection he enjoys as president in office, the Republican is implicated in several cases.
On January 20, 2021, Democrat Joe Biden will be officially invested 46th President of the United States. And, on that date, Donald Trump will once again become a “simple” citizen. Thus deprived of the legal shield he has enjoyed since he was elected president, the Republican could become the first federal head of state to be held accountable for some of his actions in court.
If the Constitution of the United States does not specifically state that the president in office enjoys immunity, one of the founding fathers of the country, Alexander Hamilton (1757-1804), had written in the Federalist Papers (collection which makes reference to interpret the Basic Law) that he could “after his mandate be prosecuted and punished by ordinary law”. In 1973, then in 2000, the Department of Justice (DoJ) had also issued recommendations in this direction, believing that indicting a president in office "would harm" the proper functioning of the White House.
In an article titled “The People v. Donald J. Trump "(" The people against Donald Trump "), New York Magazine lists the charges against the leader, beaten at the ballot box.
“Considering the number of crimes he has committed, the length of time he has committed them and the range of jurisdictions in which they have taken place, his potential legal exposure is staggering. "
More than a dozen investigations concerning him - him or his relatives - are already underway, argues the publication.
"The Russian Inquiry"
Among the most sensitive issues is the "Russian investigation". Started in spring 2017, and entrusted to independent prosecutor Robert Mueller, it focuses on the possible links between the Russian government and Donald Trump's 2016 presidential campaign.
In the 448-page report, published in April 2019, the prosecutor concluded that the Kremlin was attempting to interfere, but he failed to prove voluntary complicity on the American side. On the obstruction of justice alleged against the president, he also said he was unable to decide. Justice Minister William Barr rushed to dismiss all charges against Donald Trump for lack of formal evidence.
But, two months after the publication of his report, Robert Mueller broke his silence to reaffirm the reality of "multiple and systematic efforts" put on "to harm one candidate" - Democrat Hillary Clinton. Returning to the suspicions of obstruction of which the President of the United States could have been guilty, he also explained that it is the directives of the DoJ, and not the absence of proof, which prevented him from drawing any conclusion. of its work. Robert Mueller endorsed the doctrine that "a president cannot be prosecuted for a federal offense while in office". This ban in principle will no longer hold as of January 20, 2021.
At the time (in April 2019), one of the possible options would have been the establishment of an impeachment procedure which allows the president to be dismissed from office in the event of "treason, corruption or other crimes and misdemeanors. serious ”. But Democratic officials were reluctant to embark on such an unpopular and doomed move for lack of a majority in the Senate.
During his tenure, Donald Trump was indeed the subject of impeachment proceedings, but in another case: the "Ukrainian affair". He was then suspected of having suspended major military aid to Ukraine and an official visit to the White House by President Volodymyr Zelensky to force him to open an investigation into the entourage of one of his direct political opponents. : Joe Biden. Donald Trump was unsurprisingly acquitted by the Republican-controlled upper house. But the case is not entirely closed, however, as the case is now in the hands of a prosecutor in Brooklyn, New York, reports The New York Times.
About ten other investigations in progress
The 45th tenant of the White House could also have to answer for repeated violations of the Hatch Act, abounds the political media Politico. This 1939 law prohibits any federal employee from engaging in partisan activities. "Taxpayers, whatever their political affiliation, finance the government so that it works on behalf of all Americans, and not so that it campaigns for a party or a candidate", underlines the non-partisan organization of monitoring of political life Citizens For Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW), which identified at least fifteen violations of the said law, just during the holding of the Republican National Convention this summer.
Bloomberg explains, for his part, that the outgoing president is also threatened by possible violations of campaign financing rules, for which his former counsel Michael Cohen pleaded guilty and was sentenced to three years in prison. At issue, a large sum of money paid to former pornographic actress Stormy Daniels, as part of a confidentiality clause, signed a few days before the 2016 presidential election.
Donald Trump could also potentially get into trouble with the law over his taxes. The businessman paid only $ 750 (633 euros) in federal taxes in the year of his election, four years ago, and furthermore did not pay income tax during ten of the previous fifteen years. Since the publication of the New York Times revelations, many voices have been raised for this matter to be investigated in depth, to determine whether or not this is a legal maneuver or whether it is a legal move. is engaged in tax evasion.
Note that the aforementioned cases relate only to federal crimes. However, Donald Trump is also involved in a series of state-wide cases. For the past two years, he has been facing criminal proceedings for tax fraud and insurance fraud launched by Manhattan (New York) prosecutor Cyrus Vance.
Pursuing Donald Trump, a perilous exercise
In a strongly divided country - if Democrat Joe Biden recorded a record of popular suffrage, his rival also exceeded the record held in 2008 by Barack Obama - the attitude of the 46th president against his predecessor will be particularly scrutinized.
The stake for Joe Biden will be to make sure that no one is above the law, while avoiding however passing for a vindictive man, eager to "punish" the one who has repeatedly attacked him directly. and his loved ones. And even though during his four years as head of the federal state, Donald Trump is accused of having hijacked the judiciary for the benefit of his administration.
The decision to prosecute Donald Trump will thus have to be left to a special prosecutor, on the model of the mission entrusted to Robert Mueller in the context of the "Russian affair". The special counsel, who is appointed by the Minister of Justice, should be a career prosecutor, with no connection to the president or his team. In addition, Mr. Biden will have to state upon his appointment that he does not intend to impose restrictions on him and that he will follow his recommendations, Politico sums up.
What if Donald Trump decided to pardon himself?
With the elected president not officially taking office until January 20, Donald Trump is still president in office for a few weeks. And he could use that time to grant himself a presidential pardon.
Especially since in the United States this power is very extensive: "The presidential pardon is a sort of legal magic wand capable of offering complete immunity against all federal crimes past and present, whether they are charged or not, according to the formulation ”, summarizes the CNN channel.
Mr. Trump could therefore pardon his friends - as he once did with Roger Stone in the investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 presidential campaign - or even his family. He also wouldn't have to wait for the charges to be officially laid. The only downside: this pardon only covers federal crimes. Charges brought by state courts are excluded from its spectrum.
There is no precedent in the history of the United States of a sitting president deciding to pardon himself. The legal validity of such an act would therefore be left to the appreciation of a court, or even the Supreme Court - certain legal experts having already pointed out its unconstitutional character, because it violates the idea that no one should act as a judge in his own case, reports the British daily The Independent.
Faced with these uncertainties, another possibility emerges: that Donald Trump hand over, for the last weeks of his mandate, to his vice-president, Mike Pence, leaving it to the latter to grant the presidential pardon. Gerald Ford pardoned Richard Nixon in this manner in connection with the Watergate scandal in 1974, which sets both a legal and historical precedent.
But the operation will not be without risk for the former governor of Indiana and the Republican Party. Gerald Ford's decision provoked the ire of a large section of public opinion, and he was defeated at the polls by Democrat Jimmy Carter in 1976.
