{"id":2003128,"date":"2023-08-16T22:07:01","date_gmt":"2023-08-17T02:07:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/donald-trump-indicted-ranking-the-legal-strength-of-former-presidents-four-criminal-cases\/"},"modified":"2023-08-16T22:09:06","modified_gmt":"2023-08-17T02:09:06","slug":"donald-trump-indicted-ranking-the-legal-strength-of-former-presidents-four-criminal-cases","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/donald-trump-indicted-ranking-the-legal-strength-of-former-presidents-four-criminal-cases\/","title":{"rendered":"Assessing Trump&#8217;s legal strength: Ranking his four criminal cases."},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">18<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fdonald-trump-indicted-ranking-the-legal-strength-of-former-presidents-four-criminal-cases%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=2003128&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><h2>Donald Trump Indicted: The Former President&#8217;s\u2064 One Big Advantage as Criminal Charges\u200d Pile Up<\/h2>\n<p>Former President Donald Trump now has five indictments \u200dfor four criminal cases under his belt, and the public is split across party lines over Trump&#8217;s actions in the federal and state alleged crimes.<\/p>\n<p>Now that\u200b the indictments have been returned, the next \u2064step for prosecutors is\u200b to present their case at trial, a chance to\u2062 show how strong their claims against the former president\u2064 are. Republicans have brushed\u2063 off the\u2063 criminal charges \u2063as political\u2063 targeting \u200bor persecution, while \u200cDemocrats \u2062have praised the justice system, \u200dsaying no one is above the law.<\/p>\n<h3>The Four Criminal Cases Against Trump<\/h3>\n<p>Here is a ranking of\u2063 the legal \u200bcases against Trump \u2064and how likely they\u2062 are to be upheld in court:<\/p>\n<ol>\n<li>\n<h3>Florida \u2014 \u2064Classified Documents<\/h3>\n<p>Trump was federally charged with 40 criminal counts related to his handling\u2064 of classified documents. \u2063Two of his aides, Walt Nauta and Carlos\u2063 De Oliveira, also face charges stemming from the hundreds of documents discovered at Trump&#8217;s home in\u2063 Mar-a-Lago.<\/p>\n<p>The former president is,\u200b among \u2062other charges, accused of violating the Espionage Act and conspiracy to obstruct government efforts to retrieve the documents. His aides are also charged with conspiracy to\u2062 obstruct the investigation and with making false \u2062statements.<\/p>\n<p>This case may be the strongest of \u200cthe four on paper, with the indictment providing\u200c ample documents \u200cof \u200devidence to support the claims, including photos of documents in the Mar-a-Lago rooms and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/donald-trump-indicted-ranking-the-legal-strength-of-former-presidents-four-criminal-cases\/\" title=\"Assessing Trump's legal strength: Ranking his four criminal cases.\">video surveillance showing people coming<\/a> in and out\u2064 of the rooms where the documents were being held.<\/p>\n<p>Also, several \u200dof Trump&#8217;s claims of \u200cexecutive privilege\u200d may not provide any \u2063protection for the former\u200d president, as the alleged crimes \u2063took \u2064place \u200bafter he left the White\u2062 House. He insisted that he declassified everything that he took with him, but there has been no\u200d credible evidence submitted \u2064to substantiate the claim.<\/p>\n<p>The charges are not unprecedented\u2062 applications of the law; they \u200bhave been used against other defendants, just not against\u2062 a high-profile defendant like Trump, according to the New York Times.\u2063 However, if \u200dTrump is convicted and becomes president in \u20632024, he could pardon\u2062 himself for the crimes.<\/p>\n<p>The case was assigned to Judge Aileen Cannon, a \u200dTrump\u200c appointee who has \u2063already ruled in the former president&#8217;s favor when she assigned a \u2063special master to review the documents taken during the FBI&#8217;s raid of Mar-a-Lago.<\/p>\n<p>The jury\u200d for the case will also be drawn from five counties in Fort \u2062Pierce,\u2062 where\u200d Trump won the majority \u2062of the votes, increasing the chance that the \u2064jurors could \u2064have\u2064 more sympathy for the former president. Trump only needs one holdout on the jury\u2062 to\u200b receive\u2062 a mistrial, \u2062as a unanimous verdict from all 12 \u2064jurors is necessary to convict.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<li>\n<h3>Washington, DC \u2014 2020 Election<\/h3>\n<p>Trump\u200c is charged with four counts: one of conspiring to defraud\u200d the government, one of disenfranchising voters, and two counts of corruptly obstructing \u200ban official proceeding \u2014 the \u200dJan. 6, 2021, certification of President Joe Biden&#8217;s\u2063 victory.<\/p>\n<p>This case \u2062centers\u2063 on a core process of the U.S. electoral system and\u2063 comes as Trump runs for the GOP presidential nomination in 2024.<\/p>\n<p>Unlike the Florida case, this election interference\u200b case \u200crelies on \u200bnovel applications of laws and more ambiguous facts rather than concrete evidence, such as the physical documents found.<\/p>\n<p>These charges have never been brought before, given a\u2062 situation\u200b such \u2064as\u200d Jan. 6\u2063 and Trump&#8217;s efforts to prevent Biden from becoming the president are unprecedented. This is likely the reason that special counsel Jack\u2063 Smith indicted Trump&#8217;s alleged crime in three different\u200c ways to potentially achieve a conviction.<\/p>\n<p>It will be critical during the trial\u200b for\u2062 prosecutors to prove that Trump had criminal intent when he committed the acts. The former president could \u2064claim he genuinely\u200b believed that there was widespread voter fraud and that the election had been\u2063 stolen from him, but several Jan. 6 rioters have used that same claim \u2064in their own\u200c court cases, and it has not worked.<\/p>\n<p>Trump&#8217;s lawyers \u200bhave already argued against a protective order claiming it infringes on their client&#8217;s First Amendment rights. His legal counsel has already indicated\u2063 they intend to argue the same infringement\u2062 during the trial.<\/p>\n<p>The case was assigned\u2063 to Judge Tanya\u200c Chutkan, \u200can Obama appointee with a \u200bhistory of sentencing \u200bJan. 6 rioters. The\u2063 jury pool will be taken from Washington, D.C., which leans heavily Democratic.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<li>\n<h3>Georgia \u2014 Efforts \u200bto Overturn the State&#8217;s 2020 Election<\/h3>\n<p>The\u2063 former \u200bpresident is charged with 13 counts as part of a 41-count indictment of Trump and 18 of his allies for efforts to overturn Georgia&#8217;s \u200d2020 election results. This indictment, which dropped Monday night, is the latest one to\u2064 come \u200bdown \u2063against Trump.<\/p>\n<p>Trump is accused of violating the\u200d Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act and conspiring to use\u2062 fake electors\u2064 for \u200dthe Georgia 2020 election. He&#8217;s also charged with \u200cseveral counts of soliciting a public official \u200cto violate their oath.<\/p>\n<p>It overlaps with the \u200bfederal case,\u200b which means it&#8217;s possible Trump could raise \u200bFirst Amendment objections in the Georgia \u2063election case, as well.\u200d This case, however, is different for several reasons. Fulton County District \u2062Attorney \u2064Fani Willis indicted 18 people alongside\u2064 Trump, while Smith only focused \u2062on the former president&#8217;s alleged crimes.<\/p>\n<p>The legal implications of this case are also different. Because RICO is a state law, \u2064even if Trump becomes president, he wouldn\u2019t be able to pardon himself.<\/p>\n<p>Prosecutors will need to show that as part \u2064of his efforts to overturn the election, he conspired \u200cin two or more offenses from a list \u2064of several dozen. Some of these include solicitation, forgery, and making materially\u2063 false statements to state officials.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<li>\n<h3>Manhattan \u2014 Hush Money Payments<\/h3>\n<p>Trump is charged with 34 counts of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/rep-jordan-subpoenas-former-manhattan-prosecutor-who-pushed-for-trump-indictment\/\" title=\"Rep. Jordan Subpoenas Former Manhattan Prosecutor Who Pushed for Trump Indictment\">falsifying business records related<\/a> to \u200b<a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/supreme-court-rejects-trump-bid-to-shield-financial-records\/\" title=\"Supreme Court Rejects Trump Bid To Shield Financial Records\">hush money payments made<\/a> during the 2016 campaign.\u200b The \u2063charges were brought by Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg.<\/p>\n<p>This is considered\u200d the least significant and \u2064weakest \u2064case of the four. Prosecutors must show that Trump intended to commit, aid, or conceal another crime, even if \u200che is not charged \u2063with that other \u200dcrime,\u200d to convict him \u2062of a bookkeeping \u2063fraud felony.<\/p>\n<p>The idea prosecutors are going after is that Trump falsified records to conceal violations\u200d of federal or state election\u2062 laws. Using campaign finance laws\u200d can be difficult, as it can be challenging\u2064 to determine whether paying off a paramour, porn star Stormy Daniels in this case, \u200bis a campaign expenditure or a personal\u2063 one.<\/p>\n<p>If the payment to Daniels was a campaign expenditure, the\u200c Trump campaign violated\u2063 a legal\u200b requirement to \u2063report it in Federal Election Commission filings, \u200band Trump lawyer Michael Cohen\u2019s payment to\u2064 her was a loan to \u200dthe campaign\u2062 that violated\u200d individual contribution limits.<\/p>\n<p>It has never been\u2063 tested in court whether a state prosecutor \u2063can invoke a federal election crime.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<p>Click <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/\">here<\/a> to\u200b read more \u2063from \u2062the Washington Examiner.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Former President Donald Trump faces five indictments across four criminal cases. Public opinion on his alleged federal and state crimes remains divided along party lines. Prosecutors must now present their case at trial, providing an opportunity to assess the evidence and determine the outcome.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2003129,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/cndimages.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/IMG_2758-scaled-1.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[538],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2003128","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-washington-examiner"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/cndimages.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/IMG_2758-scaled-1.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2003128","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2003128"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2003128\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2003129"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2003128"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2003128"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2003128"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}