Republican presidential candidate and former U.S. President Donald Trump takes to the stage following early results of the 2024 U.S. presidential election at the Palm Beach County Convention Center in West Palm Beach, Florida, U.S. on November 6, 2024.
Callaghan O’Hare | Reuters
President-elect Donald Trump’s 2024 presidential campaign has been dogged by persistent threats that if he loses, he will have to fight numerous criminal charges in state and federal courts.
Trump will be relieved that his come-from-behind victory over Vice President Kamala Harris has been secured. Once in office, he would be able to significantly delay or halt all criminal cases filed against him.
However, he is still not exempt from liability in several high-profile civil cases, in which he has been ordered to pay fines totaling more than $570 million.
Former federal prosecutor Neema Rahmani told CNBC that Trump’s election “in theory should have no effect” on these civil matters.
“It is well established that a sitting president cannot be prosecuted, but civil suits can be brought,” Rahmani said.
President Trump said he plans to fire immediately His own Justice Department prosecutor, Special Counsel Jack Smith, has been prosecuting major criminal cases against the former president in two federal courts over the past two years.
Both of these cases had already been overturned by previous court decisions. Smith’s lawsuit in Washington, D.C., accusing Trump of illegally trying to overturn the 2020 presidential election, was effectively curtailed by the Supreme Court’s ruling granting the former president presumed immunity for his official actions while in office. narrowed and postponed.
Mr. Smith is currently working on retrying another case that accused Mr. Trump of mishandling classified documents and obstruction after it was dismissed in July by federal judge Eileen Cannon of Florida.
Those lawsuits are now almost certain to be thrown out entirely, either due to pressure from Mr. Trump’s legal team or the voluntary closure of Mr. Smith’s legal team.
“Now that Trump has won, his crime problem is gone,” Rahmani said.
“Because it is well established that a sitting president cannot be prosecuted, the election fraud case in the D.C. District Court will be dismissed, and the Department of Justice will abandon its appeal to the 11th Circuit to dismiss the classified documents case,” he said. Probably.”
The state-level criminal case in Georgia alleging that President Trump illegally interfered in the state’s 2020 election is also at a standstill. The case is already on hold as President Trump seeks to disqualify Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis because of her romantic relationship with the lead prosecutor.
Regardless of whether Willis is allowed to continue, her case could be delayed for the next four years under long-standing law. federal guidelines This means that a sitting president will not be prosecuted.
Of the four criminal cases in which Mr. Trump was indicted, only one went to trial before the election. The New York case centered on hush money payments to porn star Stormy Daniels before the 2016 election.
The case concluded in late May when a jury found Trump guilty of 34 felony counts of falsifying business records.
Trump becomes the first US president, current or former, to be convicted of a crime. The sentencing date, originally scheduled for mid-July, has been repeatedly postponed and is now set for November 26th.
Judge Juan Melchan could sentence Mr. Trump to prison, but many legal experts have expressed doubts that he will do so. And the justices, whose previous decisions to delay Trump’s sentencing were based in part on considerations of the unique circumstances of the case, could be reluctant to punish the president-elect.
Rahmani said he believes Trump’s victory already makes it “logically impossible” for him to be sentenced to prison and that he could be sentenced at any time.
But experts said Trump’s civil lawsuits should not be affected by the presidential election.
In February, New York Judge Arthur Engoron found Trump responsible for corporate fraud and ordered him to pay more than $450 million in fines.
The lawsuit, filed by New York Attorney General Letitia James, alleges that Trump, his two adult sons, his companies and others improperly inflated his assets to increase Trump’s official net worth and obtain various financial benefits. accused of doing so.
Engoron’s fine includes millions of dollars in prejudgment interest, which increases by $111,983 each day until paid.
Trump’s total liability as of Wednesday was nearly $483 million, based on numbers provided by the AG’s office.
President Trump has appealed the Engoron ruling. A five-judge panel of the New York Court of Appeals strongly questioned the validity of the AG’s case during oral arguments in September. Politico reported. The Court of Appeals has not yet issued a decision.
Stephen Gillers, a professor at New York University School of Law, said that unlike in criminal cases, Trump’s victory will not have a direct impact on fraud cases.
“There is no legal basis to delay the natural progression of the case through the appellate process,” Gillers told CNBC via email.
“Mr. Trump does not need to go to the Court of Appeals. An appeal does not interfere with his duties as president-elect or as president.” “Essentially, it’s now in the hands of the lawyers and the appellate courts.”
He added that while the court may work around the president’s busy schedule, “it will not delay the case for four years.”
Mr. Gillers expressed a similar opinion regarding two federal civil defamation lawsuits that columnist E. Jean Carroll won against Mr. Trump.
The president-elect was ordered to pay more than $88 million in defamation fines stemming from comments he made as president after Carroll claimed he raped her in the 1990s.
After Trump was predicted to win the race, Carroll I wrote to X“I tried to tell you.”
Trump’s lawyers did not respond to CNBC’s request for comment on how the election would affect his legal situation.
