An article in New York Magazine, by Jeff Wise, focuses on Donald J. Trump’s legal troubles should he lose the election this November.
After talking with a variety of legal experts, Wise describes Trump’s legal exposure as “breathtaking” in terms of the sheer numbers of investigations and potential crimes.
To assess whether Trump could face criminal charges, Wise spoke with legal experts from prosecutors to defense attorneys and legal scholars not only to see what the likelihood would be, but what the likely timeline would be should charges be brought.
Those legal experts say that it is plausible that Trump could face at least a couple of criminal charges once he no longer has the “executive privilege” that the Justice Department has determined that presidents have. (By the way, the Supreme Court has not made that determination, it’s merely a longstanding position by the Justice Department that a sitting president can’t be charged with a crime while in office.)
The article then goes on to show how Trump could end up being the first president in American history to be charged with crimes after leaving office and, conceivably, the first to be convicted and even find himself behind bars.
As many here have speculated, the most likely scenario would involve state charges, perhaps by Manhattan DA Cyrus Vance, since Trump will likely try to get himself pardoned on federal charges (with either a blanket pardon including himself or having Mike Pence pardon him (in which case Trump would need to resign in order for Pence to be able to do so.))
The two likeliest state charges should Vance pursue any would be falsifying business records (N.Y. Penal Law § 175.10) and tax fraud (N.Y. Tax Law § 1806), according to the assessment of the legal experts Wise spoke to.
Once indicted under that scenario, Trump would be arraigned at New York Criminal Court, where it would be unlikely that he would be required to post bail “since a former President with a Secret Service detail can hardly slip away unnoticed.”
Even accounting for legal delays that Trump lawyers would probably employ to the maximum extent possible, Wise says Trump could face trial sometime in 2023.
As the article points out, if Trump does get charged and convicted, it would be the “greatest downfall in American politics since Richard Nixon.”
While there are no guarantees that anyone will actually seek to charge a former president, it’s quite plausible, according to Wise and the legal experts he spoke with.
nymag.com/...