Understand the criminal cases of Donald Trump and he can still run for president of the United States

The ex-president of the United States Donald Trump reported on his social network platform that he was indicted by the US Department of Justice at the fifth fair (8). Trump’s lawyer, Jim Trusty, confirmed on fifth night that the former president faces 7 indictments.

Jack Smith, special counsel coordinating federal investigations related to the former president, has never spoken publicly about what federal promoters have said in almost a year since FBI agents searched Trump’s resort in Mar-a-Lago, Florida .

Trump was summoned to appear in federal court in Miami at the next terça-feira.

Has it ever happened before?

A former US president was accused of a federal crime, not a favorite for president of a major political party, such as Donald Trump.

The indictment of ex-vice-president Aaron Burr for treason in 1807 may be a similar case, even more so with many reservations. Therefore, the case of Trump is considered a novelty.

Has Trump ever been indicted?

The former president was indicted in March of this year by a Manhattan district promoter for state accusations related to paying bribes to a former adult film star in 2016.

The new accusation involves other questions, filed with the federal government and related to the handling of confidential documents after his departure from Casa Branca.

Why isn’t Trump being charged in connection with the attack on the Capitol?

Smith is also overseeing other Trump-related investigations, including those related to the January 6, 2021 insurrection on Capitol Hill, and Trump’s alleged attempt to overthrow the 2020 election.

Or classified material was also not found in the house of President Joe Biden?

There is a special attorney investigating the case of documents also found at the home of President Joe Biden.

The main difference in Trump’s case is that he tentatively for about a year avoided delivering documents to the National Archives, which he possessed after a president left office.

Or what about these new charges?

There are seven accusations and, according to the accurate information by CNNone of which is related to an allegation of conspiracy.

Trump is facing an indictment under the Espionage Act, according to his attorney Jim Trusty. CNN In the quinta-feira, they are charged with obstruction of justice, destruction or falsification of records, conspiracy and false statements.

There are a few other things we can infer, including that people other than Trump will likely face prosecution.

“Every means of conspiracy is an agreement between two or more people to violate the law, a meeting of minds,” says Elie Honig, senior legal analyst at CNN and ex-assistant attorney for the USA, on the night of Quinta-feira.

What can you read have been broken?

According to Marshall Cohen, reporter da CNN:

The promoters revealed the specific statutes they were investigating when they reviewed Mar-a-Lago last year, seeking to reveal dozens of documents classified as confidential, even after Trump’s team swore to turn them all over.

No entanto, this was before Smith took over the investigation as special counsel. This does not mean, however, that these are the only possible crimes, but it provides a range of possible accusations – because, to search or search in Mar-a-Lago, the promoters needed to convince a judge that there was a provable cause of that we would find evidence of crimes.

• A primeira é 18 USC 793, que parte da espionage law. This federal law deals with the illegal retention of “national defense information”, a broad term that encompasses confidential documents and other confidential government materials. This law can be applied to people who are authorized to deal with information classified as confidential, more consciously keep the material in an unsafe place, or to people who should not have the information in the first place;
• A second is to 18 USC 2071, which deals with illegal removal of government records gives custody of the United States;
• O terceiro is 18 USC 1519, which is obstruction of justice. This could happen if the promoters conclude that Trump or his advisers intentionally tried to impede their investigation – moving boxes so that the promoters do not find confidential documents, possibly questioning or complying with warrants, including surveillance measures that the promoters prove they have captured or moved the boxes , for fully disclosing an intimation, or for falsely swearing that all the confidential files have been returned.

Smith was still not involved at any time. Everything indicates that the government lawyers are busy building a case.

TO CNN I have recounted several details in the last weeks about testimonials that have appeared in the last months before the great juris. Just in March, they questioned an adviser who was in the room for the meeting when Trump was apparently recorded moving papers with confidential material across his desk.

Why is Trump being impeached in Miami and not in Washington?

Evan Perez, yes CNNreported on the night of Quinta-feira that the federal authorities were struggling with the logistics of how to prosecute the former president in Miami, and noted that it was long ago known that the federal accusations against Trump would be in Washington.

However, Florida is where Trump now lives for most of the year, and also where the FBI conducted a search in Mar-a-Lago and raised boxes containing confidential material.

Trump ruled out legal challenges in New York – his company was convicted of denial of imposts and he was found responsible for sexual abuse – as the argument that New Yorkers were politically opposed to him.

This argument will be more difficult in Florida, the state where he won in 2016 and 2020, before President Joe Biden has won or Miami-Dade County.

“The fact that this is being charged in Florida is extremely significant,” said Honig. “Legally, I guess it is the right decision of the United States Department of Justice, because they will avoid a complicated question about the premises.”

Or will the case be resolved by election?

Both Honig, a critic of Trump, and Robert Ray, a lawyer who defended Trump in his impeachment trial, spoke at the fifth fair CNN that, since the case of the Manhattan promoter is already scheduled and given the time it takes to process a federal case, it is not provable that the case can be concluded before the 2024 election.

What happens if Trump wins and the judging is not concluded?

“Vai embora”, said Robert Ray. “The Department of Justice would control it… if it is still pending, it will simply dismiss the case.”

Is it going to make the Republicans turn against Trump?

The ex-president suffered impeachment twice, was accused of trying to overthrow an election, tried him several times, was accused in Manhattan, among other cases. He is still the favorite for the Republican presidential nomination, according to the investigations.

Trump has a guarantee, even so, to seek support based on these latest accusations, all part of what he alleges to be a “hunt for witches” of a year.

“He could really mount his campaign against these accusations,” former Democratic strategist and analyst of the CNN David Axelrod at the night of the fifth fair. “Acho that isso that we will see, as well as we did here in New York. He will say: ‘They are looking behind us. They are trying to throw out our voice’”.

Can Trump still run for president while he is indicted or convicted?

“Nothing prevents Trump from running while he is indicted, or even convicted,” said Richard Hasen, professor of law at the University of California, in Los Angeles, in an e-mail at the beginning of this year.

The Constitution requires only three things two candidates. They must be:

• born citizenship;
• Hair less than 35 years old;
• A resident of two USA by hair less than 14 years;
• From a political point of view, it may be more difficult for an accused candidate, who may become a convicted criminal, to win votes. The judgments do not allow the candidates to give their best. But it is not forbidden that they compete or be chosen.

Other restrictions do not apply to Trump

There are some gaps both in the Constitution and in the 14th and 22nd Amendments:

• term limits. The 22nd Amendment prohibits anyone who has been president twice (or which means that he was elected twice or fulfilled the goal of the mandate of another person and after winning or himself) from running again. This does not apply to Trump since he lost the 2020 election;
• Impeachment. If a person is prevented by the Chamber and convicted by the Senate for serious crimes and contraventions, they will be removed from office and disqualified from serving again. Trump, now accused twice by the Chamber during his presidency, was also acquitted twice by the Senate;
• Disqualification. The 14th Amendment included a “disqualification clause”, written specifically targeting former Confederate soldiers. Oh see: No person may be a senator or a representative in Congress, or an elector of the president and vice-president, or hold any position, civil or military, in the United States or in any state that, having previously taken an oath, as a member of Congress, or as an officer two United States, or as a member of any state legislature, or as executive or judiciary officer of any State, to support the Constitution of the United States, must be involved in insurrection or rebellion against it, or aid or comfort its enemies .

The indication in the city of New York regarding clandestine payments to an adult movie star is not related to rebellion or insurrection, as well as federal orders related to confidential documents.

There may be accusations in Fulton County, in Georgia, in relation to meddling in the 2020 elections or at the federal level in relation to the insurrection of January 6, 2021 in the Capitol, they may be interpreted by some as a form of insurrection.

Would Trump be able to vote if he was convicted?

If he is convicted of a crime at the federal level or in New York, Trump would be prevented from voting in his adoptive home state of Florida, hair less until serving a possible sentence.

Could Trump be imprisoned?

Professor Richard Hasen said that the Secret Service would have to provide his protection in prison if Trump is arrested. The logistics are incomprehensible. The agents would be placed in cells on each side of it? Would they dress like prisoners or guards?

High-level authorities accused of irregularities will historically find a way out of prison. Former President Richard Nixon obtains a preventive pardon from his successor, Gerald Ford. Nixon’s former vice president, Spiro Agnew, resigned after being caught in a corruption scandal. Agnew entered into a judicial agreement and avoided prison. Burr, also a former vice president, narrowly escaped conviction for treason. But then he left the country.

But the people are routinely serving a prison sentence for withholding confidential documents, conspiracy and obstruction. We are very long disso.