The elected American President Donald Trump is described as one of the “repeat offenders,” as he is the first president in American history to be convicted on 34 criminal charges—not misdemeanor—four of which are local and federal cases. He could rule the country from behind bars if he is sentenced to prison!
Long list of accusations
Despite this long list, along with accusations from 26 women of sexual assault, Trump is set to be inaugurated on January 20, 2025, as the President of the United States! Thus, he transitions from being a criminally convicted individual, facing various legal troubles, and having been raided by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), to being the leader of the world's largest superpower, having won votes signifying an American choice for a criminal convict and a religiously radical extremist.
Now, Trump has become the first former American president to be convicted of a crime, the first elected president to win after being convicted, and according to American newspapers and reports, there is a significant dilemma. Trump may add to his unique agenda a new paradox: to be the first president convicted of a crime while in office, which would allow him to pass any law he desires, including pardoning himself.
Trump, who is 78 years old, was scheduled to be tried last March, but the case was frozen after his lawyers argued that the former president is protected by immunity from criminal prosecution.
Charged with fraud
The elected president Trump is accused of conspiring to defraud the state and obstructing an official proceeding; namely, the congressional session that was violently disrupted by Trump supporters on January 6, 2021.
He is also accused of attempting to deprive American voters of their right to vote through his false claims that he won the 2020 elections. Trump was convicted last May in New York on 34 charges related to falsifying business records to cover up payments made to buy the silence of a pornographic film actress, and he faces charges in Georgia related to attempts to overturn the results of the 2020 election, won by Democrat Joe Biden.
Deferred Cases Without Date
Trump has been postponing four lawsuits filed against him, some of which are criminal, such as inciting his supporters in 2020 to storm the Capitol, and some of his supporters have already been imprisoned, hoping that he would pardon himself when he becomes president after the upcoming November elections. However, he faced his first court case in New York last May related to the pornographic actress, falsifying business records, and lying, with 34 convictions. Yet, after it became likely he might enter prison with a final ruling on June 11, or face house arrest or fines, the ruling has been postponed until after the elections.
Attempts to overturn the election results
Then came the judge's decision in Trump's trial regarding the illegal attempts to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election, on November 10 (after his victory), to postpone all deadlines in the timetable for this case following a request from the special prosecutor, indicating the possibility of suspending the proceedings of his trial.
Special prosecutor Jack Smith justified his request to cancel the deadlines in the timeline due to the need to give the prosecution time to study this unprecedented situation and determine the appropriate course of action according to the Department of Justice's policy, stating that he would present the outcome of his deliberations by December 2.
The special prosecutor and the Department of Justice began discussions to stop federal prosecutions against Trump, according to several U.S. media outlets. Since the U.S. Department of Justice adopted a policy over 50 years ago of not prosecuting a sitting president, most legal commentators in America expect this policy to extend to Trump's case; this would allow him to escape federal prosecution until the end of his new term.
He noted that it is not unlikely that once he returns to the White House, he could either appoint a new Attorney General who would dismiss the special prosecutor investigating his cases (Smith), or simply order the Department of Justice to drop the charges against him.
In October 2023, a federal case file against Trump showed that Smith had accused Trump of engaging in a “special criminal effort” to undermine the 2020 elections, and that he should not be protected by presidential immunity.
Will he pardon himself?!
Trump hoped that the Supreme Court would absolve him from three new criminal trials, and there are concerns that he might manipulate the makeup of the court and appoint judges loyal to him, after his party gained control of the Senate, which gives him the right to appoint judges with the Senate's approval and thus control the composition of the Supreme Court.
According to the American "Intercept" website, on May 30, Trump had already sought to delay the cases until he became president so that he could issue a pardon for himself, but the 34 convictions against him in the first case ruled in a New York court concerning the pornographic actress and business record falsification and lying hindered Trump’s plan to pardon himself.
The site mentioned that he also faces challenges with the four other separate cases in which he is on trial and facing charges from the U.S. government, which are more serious criminal charges such as the Capitol riot and insurrection, and the evidence against him in all the cases is known by him and his lawyers.
However, his legal strategy boiled down to delaying the cases until he could win the presidential election, and then quickly abusing his presidential powers to terminate the two federal cases brought against him, but the state cases pose a greater threat to him, because he would have no ability to pardon himself if he were to win, according to "Intercept."
Immunity
But former U.S. Deputy Attorney General Bruce Fein said to Al-Hurra TV that the Department of Justice does not operate on the assumption that the American president has immunity, indicating that it functions regardless of the Supreme Court's decision that presidential immunity is part of their responsibilities. He emphasized that even the American president cannot pardon himself because there is a fundamental principle in law, dating back 500 years, that a person cannot be part of any case against themselves. However, after the inauguration of the elected president Trump, we may see changes in some matters depending on what is requested from the Department of Justice, where the charges against him may disappear in Washington and Florida!
Federal charges
Fein clarifies that it is the U.S. Department of Justice that can decide federal charges, but at the level of cases in the states of Georgia and New York, they will remain pending. The president has no right to pardon himself at the state level. He noted that states like Georgia, where the votes were in favor of Trump, may see a movement at the state level to end the cases, and the same could happen in New York; a judge may find it difficult to sentence Trump to prison and decide to drop the case. All these matters have become "political" rather than "judicial."
Fein says that Trump can pardon other people who share the same charges in the case in Florida, which raises the question: How can a president, who is supposed to uphold the Constitution according to it, pardon individuals who have violated the law?!
He added that if the circumstances were different and Republicans did not control Congress, and Democrats were in control, we would have seen the president impeached if he pardoned people so they would not face punishment.
