U.S. President-elect Donald Trump. File
| Photo Credit: AP

The story so far: In light of the legal immunity afforded to U.S. Presidents for official acts, Department of Justice (DOJ) Special Counsel Jack Smith recently moved to drop the charges against President-elect Donald Trump for attempting to overturn the results of the 2020 election, specifically the criminal charges for encouraging a violent mob to attack the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021. Mr. Smith’s request was granted by the District Judge hearing the case.

What about the other cases?

The DOJ has also filed motions to drop all federal charges against Mr. Trump that relate to the latter’s “mishandling” of classified documents. Two state-level cases against him are also in legal limbo: the election interference case in Georgia has been paused pending a decision by an appeals court; in the business fraud case in New York involving charges against Mr. Trump for paying off an adult film star for her silence over an alleged affair, his conviction has been indefinitely delayed.

Scot-free: On a major legal reprieve for Donald Trump

While the dropping of these charges marks the official end of Democrats’ hopes to hold Mr. Trump liable for several alleged crimes, it remains to be seen as to whether the 45th President will use this clean slate as a springboard to a bipartisan approach to policymaking, or whether it will merely strengthen his hand towards a second inning of the brand of divisive politics that has polarised the electorate of the country in recent years.

What are the specific charges against Mr. Trump that have been dropped?

Firstly, regarding the classified documents case, Mr. Trump was first indicted in June 2023 on 37 felony counts “related to mishandling classified documents that he took from the White House to his Florida home.” These charges included wilful retention of national defence information, conspiracy to obstruct justice and making false statements. While a Florida judge had earlier dismissed the case and Mr. Smith’s office had sought an appeal, those charges are all being dropped now.

In August 2023, Mr. Trump was additionally indicted on four felony charges relating to his attempts to reverse the 2020 election results. These charges included conspiracy to defraud the U.S., conspiracy to obstruct an official proceeding (a reference to the process of certification of the election results by Congress), obstruction of and attempt to obstruct an official proceeding and conspiracy against rights.

What view has the U.S. Supreme Court taken on the subject?

The Supreme Court in July 2024 handed down its first ruling on the subject of presidential immunity when it determined, by an expected 6-3 majority, that former Presidents enjoyed broad immunity from prosecution. At the time, Chief Justice John Roberts wrote for the majority opinion of the court, “Under our constitutional structure of separated powers, the nature of presidential power entitles a former president to absolute immunity from criminal prosecution for actions within his conclusive and preclusive constitutional authority… And he is entitled to at least presumptive immunity from prosecution for all his official acts. There is no immunity for unofficial acts.”

The three liberal dissenting judges criticised the ruling as undermining the “core democratic principle that no person is above the law,” with Justice Sonia Sotomayor writing that “in every use of official power, the President is now a king above the law” and that the protection afforded to Presidents by the court was “just as bad as it sounds, and it is baseless.”

Is Mr. Trump absolved of guilt?

Not necessarily. In her latest ruling on the cases, District Judge Tanya Chutkan said that she was dismissing the election interference charges against Mr. Trump “without prejudice,” suggesting that the door to prosecuting Mr. Trump in the future has been left open, specifically after Mr. Trump demits office after his second term, and loses his legal immunity shield. Hinting at the DOJ’s view on the matter, Mr. Smith noted that the charges had been dropped because the DOJ “forbids the federal indictment and subsequent criminal prosecution of a sitting President,” while adding the decision to not proceed with the indictments and trials was “not based on the merits or strength of the case against the defendant.”

Then there are the political views of liberals and progressives, possibly including a majority of the more than 74 million Americans who voted for Mr. Trump’s rival, incumbent Vice- President and Democrat candidate Kamala Harris, in the November 5 presidential election. While voter views on Mr. Trump may vary widely in general, polling as recently as six months ago found that nearly three in five Americans (59%) agreed that Mr. Trump was guilty of the 34 felony counts on which he was convicted in the New York case, compared to just 32% who believed he was innocent. Another poll around the same time found that a whopping 50% of respondents thought that Mr. Trump’s guilty verdict on all 34 counts in his hush money trial was correct. Similarly, a poll in April this year found that 53% of respondents believed that Mr. Trump committed “serious federal crimes.”

Yet the fact that a poll in May 2024 suggested that 67% of voters — including 74% of independents — said that a conviction would make no difference for how they voted in the election offers a deeper insight into the political preferences of voters.

The judge overseeing Donald Trump’s 2020 election interference case canceled any remaining court deadlines while prosecutors assess the “the appropriate course going forward” in light of the Republican’s presidential victory. FIle photo
| Photo Credit: KEVIN WURM

WASHINGTON

The judge overseeing Donald Trump’s 2020 election interference case canceled any remaining court deadlines Friday while prosecutors assess the “the appropriate course going forward” in light of the Republican’s presidential victory.

Special Counsel Jack Smith charged Trump last year with plotting to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election and illegally hoarding classified documents at his Mar-a-Lago estate. But Smith’s team has been evaluating how to wind down the two federal cases before the president-elect takes office because of longstanding Justice Department policy that says sitting presidents cannot be prosecuted, a person familiar with the matter told The Associated Press.

Trump’s victory over Vice President Kamala Harris means that the Justice Department believes he can no longer face prosecution in accordance with department legal opinions meant to shield presidents from criminal charges while in office.

Trump has criticized both cases as politically motivated, and has said he would fire Smith “within two seconds” of taking office.

In a court filing Friday in the 2020 election case, Smith’s team asked to cancel any upcoming court deadlines, saying it needs “time to assess this unprecedented circumstance and determine the appropriate course going forward consistent with Department of Justice policy.”

U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan quickly granted the request, and ordered prosecutors to file court papers with their “proposed course for this case” by Dec. 2.

Trump had been scheduled to stand trial in March in Washington, where more than 1,000 of his supporters have been convicted of charges for their roles in the Capitol riot. But his case was halted as Trump pursued his sweeping claims of immunity from prosecution that ultimately landed before the U.S. Supreme Court.

The Supreme Court in July ruled that former presidents have broad immunity from prosecution, and sent the case back to Chutkan to determine which of the the allegations in the indictment can move forward.

The classified documents case has been stalled since July when a Trump-appointed judge, Aileen Cannon, dismissed it on grounds that Smith was illegally appointed. Smith has appealed to the Atlanta-based 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, where the request to revive the case is pending. Even as Smith looks to withdraw the documents case against Trump, he would seem likely to continue to challenge Cannon’s ruling on the legality of his appointment given the precedent such a ruling would create.

Russian President Vladimir Putin said the idea that Donald Trump had special ties with Russia was “complete nonsense”.
| Photo Credit: AP

Russian President Vladimir Putin said on September 12 that the prosecution of former U.S. President Donald Trump was politically motivated and demonstrated the “rottenness” of the U.S. political system.

Mr. Trump, the front-runner for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination, is facing a series of criminal cases in which he is charged, among other things, with trying to overturn his 2020 presidential election defeat by Joe Biden.

Explained | How will the indictments affect Donald Trump?

He has pleaded not guilty, while Mr. Biden, who is seeking re-election next year, has kept silent about the proceedings against his opponent.

Mr. Putin said what was happening to Mr. Trump was good from Russia’s point of view.

“It shows all the rottenness of the American political system, which cannot pretend to teach others about democracy,” he said at a forum in Russia’s far eastern city of Vladivostok.

“Everything that’s happening with Trump is politically motivated persecution of one’s political rival, that’s what it is. And it’s being done before the eyes of the U.S. public and the whole world. They’ve simply exposed their internal problems.”

Mr. Putin continued: “In this sense, if they are trying to fight us in some way, it’s good, because it shows who is fighting us. It shows, as they said back in Soviet times, ‘the bestial face of American imperialism, the bestial grin’.”

As President, Mr. Trump was investigated for possible collusion with Russia but an investigation by special counsel Robert Mueller did not find sufficient evidence that Trump’s campaign had coordinated with Moscow to influence the 2016 election in which he defeated Hillary Clinton.

Mr. Putin said the idea that Mr. Trump had special ties with Russia was “complete nonsense”.

He also said significant changes in the U.S.-Russia relationship were unlikely regardless of who wins the 2024 U.S. election because the administration was “hammering into people’s heads” that Russia was an existential adversary.

“No matter who is elected, the vector of anti-Russian U.S. policy is unlikely to be affected,” he said.

Relations between Moscow and Washington, already strained during Trump’s presidency, have plunged to post-Cold War lows under Biden following Putin’s decision in February 2022 to send tens of thousands of troops into Ukraine, triggering sweeping Western sanctions and Western military aid to Kyiv.