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President-elect Donald Trump has won a major legal reprieve after Special Counsel Jack Smith of the Department of Justice (DOJ) moved to drop the prosecution against him for attempting to overturn the results of the 2020 election — a request granted by the District Judge hearing the case. Mr. Trump, who was in office until 2021, faced criminal charges for encouraging a violent mob to attack the U.S. Capitol on January 6 of that year. Judge Tanya Chutkan said that she had dismissed the election interference charges “without prejudice”, which suggests that a future prosecution might be on the cards after Mr. Trump’s second term, and when his legal immunity ends. Mr. Smith has also filed motions to drop all federal charges against Mr. Trump that relate to his “mishandling” of classified documents and attempts to obstruct law enforcement officers seeking evidence. Mr. Smith noted that the DOJ “forbids the federal indictment and subsequent criminal prosecution of a sitting President”, while adding the decision not to proceed with the indictments and trials was “not based on the merits or strength of the case against the defendant.” Two additional cases of criminal indictments are also now in legal limbo. A case on election interference in Georgia has been paused pending an appeals court decision, and in the New York case in which Mr. Trump was convicted on fraud charges linked to paying off an adult film star for her silence over an alleged affair, his conviction has been indefinitely delayed.
Mr. Trump, who was impeached twice on charges relating to his role in the 2021 insurrection and for pressuring Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy to investigate President Joe Biden’s son Hunter for corruption, has now effectively been given a clean slate for his second-term agenda. Mr. Trump’s resounding win earlier this month suggests that a majority of voters were not swayed by the ongoing cases and the nearly 100 charges that he faced. Now, armed with the confidence of a significant number of supporters, he has a free hand to shape the domestic and foreign policy paradigms with the help of Republican lawmakers who control both Houses of the U.S. Congress and conservatives who dominate the Supreme Court. The question that more than 74 million Americans who voted for his rival, Vice President and Democrat candidate Kamala Harris, must be wondering about is whether Mr. Trump will proceed further down a divisive path on sensitive issues such as immigration, reproductive rights and the economy, or whether, with less to lose now than ever before, he might strike a more bipartisan note and build bridges with his political opposition for the betterment of all.
Published – November 27, 2024 12:10 am IST
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Scot-free: On a major legal reprieve for Donald Trump
