Former President Donald J. Trump has a uniquely personal interest in the outcome of the election: If he wins the White House, he could disrupt or even dispose of the various criminal cases he is facing. But if he loses, he could become the first former president to lose his liberty, too.
Mr. Trump’s four criminal cases are quietly chugging along in court even as his race against Vice President Kamala Harris dominates the news. Important legal battles continue to be fought, and motions to be filed. Even now, Mr. Trump’s lawyers are preparing for him to be sentenced — possibly to jail time — on his one conviction so far at a hearing in Manhattan scheduled for three weeks after Election Day.
Mr. Trump has told people close to him that if he wins the election, the legal cases would simply “go away.” On Thursday he said he would fire Jack Smith, the special counsel who filed two federal cases against him, “within two seconds” if he regains the White House. “I don’t think they’ll impeach me if I fire Jack Smith,” Mr. Trump, who was impeached twice by the House of Representatives, told the radio host Hugh Hewitt.
He went further in another radio interview, suggesting that Mr. Smith should be deported along with undocumented immigrants. “Jack Smith should be considered mentally deranged and he should be thrown out of the country,” Mr. Trump said on WABC, a talk radio station in New York.
Becoming president again would place Mr. Trump back in charge of the Justice Department, giving him significant powers to dispose of the indictments brought by Mr. Smith. In one of those cases, based in Washington, Mr. Trump stands accused of plotting to overturn the 2020 election. In the other, based in Florida, he was charged with illegally holding on to classified material after leaving office.
A victory at the polls could have an impact on the state cases he faces as well.
It could hinder efforts by Fani T. Willis, the district attorney of Fulton County, Ga., to pursue her case against Mr. Trump on charges of tampering with the 2020 election results in Georgia. That is because, legal experts say, state authorities are expected to honor a longstanding federal prohibition against prosecuting a sitting president.
(The New York Times)
