After winning the elections on November 5, Donald Trump continues to accumulate victories. The decision of special prosecutor Jack Smith to dismiss this Monday the case of the assault on the Capitol and that of the classified documents brings the future president closer to emerging unscathed, despite being the first United States leader to be criminally convicted.
Aware of the rule that prevents the Department of Justice from proceeding with criminal accusations against a sitting president, Smith had no choice but to file two court briefs requesting that the cases be dismissed, before the January 20 inauguration.
All this after last Friday New York judge Juan Merchan decided to postpone without a date the sentence against Trump for the only case for which he had been convicted, the falsification of business records for irregular payments to porn actress Stormy Daniels.
Read: Prosecutor abandons criminal cases against Trump; ‘It was a political kidnapping,’ says the Republican
On August 24, 2023, after being accused in the state of Georgia of organized crime, among other crimes, Trump’s mugshot after turning himself in to the authorities became a snapshot for history, that of the only former president prosecuted.
At that time there were many who imagined – or wished – to see Trump behind bars for one of the four criminal accusations against him. An image that is unviable today after his resounding victory against Kamala Harris, which brings the Republican closer to emerging unscathed from all of them.
Trump’s hunter runs out of weapons
In November 2022, Attorney General Merrick Garland turned Smith into Trump’s hunter after appointing him a special independent prosecutor, responsible for overseeing two criminal investigations of the Department of Justice: that of his role in the assault on the Capitol and that of the alleged mishandling of classified documents.
Trump had just announced that he would aspire to the presidency of the United States and since then he has based the public defense of all his cases on selling himself as a victim of an alleged witch hunt against him by the Government of Joe Biden.
Thus, far from damaging his image, each of his appearances in court ended up becoming another campaign act. In fact, he frequently commented that on his first day as president he would fire Smith and order the Justice Department to close the cases against him.
There was no need, since Smith has thrown in the towel before, both in Washington DC and in Florida. Trump will in all likelihood emerge unscathed from having instigated violence on January 6, 2021, when a mob of protesters stormed Congress, leaving five dead, dozens injured and an unforgettable image, that of the invaded Capitol.
And he will not pay a sentence for having improperly stored – even in one of the bathrooms of his mansion – classified documents in his already famous club in Mar-a-Lago (Florida).
New York, without sentence, and Georgia, in the air
In his trial in the Big Apple for falsifying business records, the judge decided on Friday to postpone the sentence without a date, which raises several scenarios: that he ends up dismissing the case, that he reduces his sentence – he faces up to four years of prison – or delay it until after his new mandate.
Read: Trump completes the election of his varied and loyal cabinet in record time
That of the irregular payment to the porn actress Stormy Daniels to cover up an affair he had with her, the only case for which he had been convicted, is therefore one step away from being dismissed. The judge announced the sentence in May and Trump then became the first former president found guilty.
Meanwhile, the electoral interference case in Georgia is also up in the air, waiting to see if the Fulton County prosecutor, Fani Willis, another of Trump’s most obstinate hunters, is disqualified after it was discovered that she had an affair with the special prosecutor Nathan Wade.
According to sources close to the case cited by US media, it is unlikely that a state magistrate will allow the case to go to trial once Trump is president.
Added to all this is the fact that the Supreme Court, with a conservative majority, granted him partial immunity in July for crimes he may have committed while he held the position of president, a decision that had also given an impetus to the future president emerged unscathed in most cases.
With information from EFE
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