Washington – While there is often enough strength and ego to lead likely presidents, Donald Trump may have a more compelling reason to desire his former job: to stay out of jail.
When grand jurors convene in Atlanta next month to focus on Trump’s coercion of Georgia officials and federal prosecutors in Washington, it looks like a conspiracy to try and block the January 6, 2021 election certificate, more than Trump can do. which pleased the current presidents.
“He sees the office as a shield to protect himself,” said George Conway, a legal expert who oversees the president’s legislative challenges. He said the search for the presidency to avoid jail, even if meaningless to most, would be the next logical step for Trump. “It’s like a Ponzi scheme. You have to keep going, otherwise it will fall ”.
Which means that someone who made history by openly soliciting and accepting help from a foreign opponent to gain power, and then attempting to overthrow that Republic a second time in order to retain that power, could do it again by voting in the presidential election. Under active indictment.
“None of the Constitutional qualifications say you should be innocent,” said John Ryder, a former Republican National Committee member who is well -versed in the rules and laws of presidential nomination.
If Trump wins, he will suddenly take advantage of the rules and precedent implemented to focus the CEO on serious office responsibilities.
The Justice Department’s official policy since Richard Nixon’s term has not been to begin an investigation into current presidents, which likely means federal prosecutors will stop any ongoing action against Trump if he returns to office. .
And while state prosecutors are not covered by this federal policy, it appears that the recent U.S. Supreme Court case in which Trump was involved. During an oral debate in May 2020, both the judges and the New York State Attorney General agreed that the president is a position of special importance and that any attempt to prosecute the incumbent should be aware of that responsibility. .
Norma Eisen, an Obama White House ethics lawyer who worked two years ago on the House committee overseeing Trump’s first impeachment, said there is a big difference between a president who is under investigation during his tenure and one who is under ongoing persecution. It will come in place. The courts, of course, will act to stop delays in existing cases, he said. Otherwise, it will create the wrong incentive to seek out the White House.
“Participation in presidential elections cannot be an incentive for mobsters and other career criminals,” he said. “This is not an American legal framework.”
But Conway, who apparently wrote the Supreme Court briefing against Bill Clinton in Paula Jones’ civil suit that forced him to testify during his presidency, said that while there is clearly no law in the case in a particular situation specifically with Trump, the Supreme Court is serious. convinced that they treat the powers and responsibilities of Article 2 of the Constitution as attributed by the President.
“If Article II prevents federal prosecution, I don’t think there’s any doubt, it will prevent state prosecution,” he said, adding that protection will expand even if Trump somehow wins. in the 2024 election behind bars. “He can vote for the position from prison. And if he wins, you have to challenge him.”
The Constitution was silent at the time of the accusation
Being in jail until Election Day 2024, of course, is unlikely even in the unlikely event that Trump will be charged in the foreseeable future. Defendants who can pay hefty legal fees, even those less famous in trials like Trump, can usually postpone prosecution for years if they wish.
Trump is more likely to have been charged with election fraud in Fulton County, Georgia, by the Grand Jury Court or similar cases. The Federal Grand Jury launched an attack on Jan. 6 against a pro-Trump mob in the Capitol-and is awaiting trial.
Many of those who admitted their actions that day were urged by prosecutors to declare an attempt to stop official proceedings, thus creating a record that would allow them to accuse others of conspiring to do the same. ito.
In fact, in a related civil case, a California federal judge ruled that Trump and John Eastman, one of Trump’s outside advisers on a plan to overturn the election, “inadvertently adjourned the joint hearing. in Congress on Jan.6. 2021 “. And he called the scheme a “coup d’etat in the pursuit of legal theory.”
However, charges at the state or federal level will not prevent Trump from legally pursuing the presidential election in 2024. No state has the capacity to impose stricter rules on a candidate’s eligibility than those stated in Constitution of the United States, which we have. there are exactly three: applicants must be at least 35 years old, natural citizens of the United States and resident. At least 14 years in the country.
“Nothing is stopping him from voting and nothing is stopping him from being elected,” Conway said.
Ryder said that if he chooses to sue, it will take the country to another unknown form of water.
“Then you approach legal matters,” he said. “Will the trial be postponed while awaiting the expiration of his mandate? Can he forgive himself? Conclusion No one really knows. “
Conway said he is not convinced Trump can escape his pardon to permanently eliminate federal cases, but the courts will almost certainly stop prosecuting him until he is no longer in office. “He can’t do his job if he’s incarcerated or incarcerated,” Conway said. “The case will be stopped”.
Ryder admitted that the NCR could, if it wished, set rules to complicate matters for the defendants who won the nomination, but he said he doubted the group had any interest in doing so. . “They’ll pay for his attorney’s fees,” he smiled.
Neither Trump nor NCR staff answered HuffPost’s questions.
Wins the White House to avoid jail
Trump has clarified from the last days of his term that he fears a court case based on Jan. 6 and his actions. He was reportedly considering forgiving himself and his family before making a decision against it and actually planning to go to Scotland. The moment of Joe Biden’s inauguration, there on one of his golf courses, until the Prime Minister of this country announced that he would not be accepted.
Trump recently told an audience at the rally, “They want to be incarcerated” before telling his followers to prepare for the “biggest protest we’ve ever experienced” in Atlanta, Washington and elsewhere.
The approach reflects Trump’s model of trying to legitimize all investigations and his activities by both investigators as corrupt and politically motivated. During his tenure, he called both the special prosecutor’s office to investigate Russia’s assistance and an impeachment attempt to extort money from Ukraine, forcing most Republicans to help him.
It is not clear if this technique will still work. He is no longer the incumbent president and other Republicans are also calling for a nomination for 2024, despite Trump’s attempts to freeze rivals.
However, it remains to be seen how aggressive other GOP candidates are who want to oppose Trump. In 2016, Trump’s main rivals ignored his apparent weakness on conservative issues and inaccurate company records until it was too late and he had already named a nomination.
So far, in 2024, only two of Trump’s potential rivals want to criticize his behavior before Jan. 6 and Jan. 6, when they made previous election visits: former Vice President Mike Pence and former Governor of New Jersey Chris Christie. , and only Christie. He talks about it all the time.
Ryder said that while the “heavyweight Trump support group” views the criminal charges against Trump as almost “politically motivated”, it is more likely that a majority of members of parliament will see the accused as a deeply flawed choice in general. Elections. “The political and legal consequences are two different things,” he said.
However, a former Trump White House official said there was a difference between Jan. 6 as a campaign issue and Trump personally faced real persecution, and that the latter would really help him.
“I don’t think that constantly remembering the events of January 6 would be beneficial to him,” said the former official, who is still active in republican politics, on condition that he remains anonymous. “But the real accusation may look like a victim.”
Eisen said he hopes voters will send a clear message in the general election if Trump achieves this goal. “The campaign will be a referendum on his crime,” he said. “Most Americans look at him with disgust.”
Trump, despite losing 7 million votes nationwide to Biden and 306-232 to the Electoral College, became the first president in more than two centuries of elections to refuse to relinquish power peacefully. The incitement to attack the Capitol on Jan. 6 – the latest attempt to stay in office – resulted in five deaths, including one policeman, 140 other officers were injured and four policemen committed suicide.
However, Trump remains the dominant figure in the Republican Party and openly speaks out about re -voting in the 2024 presidential election.
Source: Huffpost
