Trump allies remain in legal peril despite his election victory

Source: The Hill

11/17/24 6:00 AM ET


President-elect Trump’s White House victory set his legal cases on a downward spiral, but his allies who have faced prosecution or other legal trouble are not yet in the clear. Dozens of Trump aides, associates and backers — including top officials in his first administration — have faced criminal charges tied to efforts to keep the former president in power after he lost the 2020 election. Many also faced disbarments, bankruptcy and civil litigation. While Trump’s criminal cases are winding down upon his imminent return to the nation’s highest office, those same protections he has as president don’t extend to his allies.

In Georgia, more than a dozen people were charged alongside Trump with attempting to subvert the state’s election results. President Biden won the state by 11,779 votes in 2020. Trump’s former chief of staff, Mark Meadows, and Rudy Giuliani, the ex-New York City mayor who helped lead the 2020 push, are co-defendants in that case, in addition to several lawyers and aides. Trump supporters who signed false paperwork saying they were the state’s true electors are also charged.

A Justice Department opinion on separation of powers makes it clear that state criminal prosecutions against Trump must, at the very least, be put on ice while he’s in office, said Gregory Germain, a law professor at Syracuse University, in a blog post after November’s election.

“In all likelihood, the state criminal cases will be put on hold during Trump’s presidency,” he wrote. “If they try to continue with the prosecutions, or even to impose a stayed sentence, I suspect the decisions will be reversed on appeal.” But that’s not the case for the 14 other defendants with remaining charges.

Read more: https://thehill.com/regulation/court-battles/4993504-trump-allies-legal-peril/