Presumptive winner Donald Trump celebrates a victory in the 2024 presidential election.
But the former president still has three unsolved criminal cases pending against him and the verdict remains in his hush money case, in which he was convicted of 34 felony counts.
But despite predictions to the contrary, none of the allegations ended up lowering Trump’s political fortunes along the way.
The former president has also won some major legal victories, including a federal judge throwing out his case involving classified documents, which is now being appealed. The Supreme Court also granted him and all future presidents immunity from certain prosecutions.
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As for his criminal history, Richard Painter, a professor of corporate law at the University of Minnesota Law School and general counsel to former President George W. Bush, offered some insight.
“It’s really a very challenging situation for prosecutors. The federal prosecutor would almost certainly be fired by President Trump as soon as he takes office again in January,” Painter said at Scripps News.
He said it would be “very difficult” to prevent Trump from firing the special counsel once he regains control of the White House.
“The Supreme Court of the United States and the case of Trump v. United States made it very clear that the president has almost complete control over the Department of Justice and can cause a special prosecutor to be fired. The judge can try to keep the case alive for a while in the District of Columbia, but I think that it would be very difficult with the Department of Justice, and to start with the president calling for the case to be dismissed,” Painter said “The same would happen to Florida with the federal case it.”
However, Trump’s hush money case is a little different, as it has resulted in a conviction. In this case, Trump will still have to appear for judgment in the New York court.
“A prison sentence is very unlikely given the nature of the crime, but he could very well be sentenced to probation and have to report to a probation officer by Zoom, I guess, from the Oval Office, which would be a first — to Have the president report regularly to a court-ordered state corrections officer, Painter said. “But that may well be the likely outcome of that New York case at sentencing.”
Painter stressed, however, that if Trump were to fail to comply with the terms of his probation, he would have to reappear in court in New York for a recall hearing.
“Like the Georgia case, it’s a mess right now. We don’t know where it’s going to go,” Painter added.
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